Sailor Moon: The Crystal Knight Chronicles
by Pandoras-Closet
Summary: While they are unchanged, the Senshi's world has changed. New Allies, return of old enemies and a brand new foe who is more terrifying then they have ever faced. This is a world that still needs the Senshi, but would die before it admits that.
1. Crystal Dawn

Note: When I first became aware of Sailor Moon, it was through the dub by DiC, which is still the silliest name for a company ever. Still, better the dub then what Saban wanted to do with it.  
  
I want to stress that these were written from 1997 to 2000 and that the Chronicles has since been abandoned for various reasons. Which is probably a good thing since there was supposed to be a hundred fics that made up the Chronicles. I've even thrown in the unfinished Book 9 so you can see just how woefully ignorant I was of the SM universe.  
  
Crystal Dawn. Our Story so Far:  
  
The Senshi have once more been summoned to Crystal Tokyo. When Pluto used her forbidden attack, an alternate reality was created. A reality where the sailor Senshi failed and were killed. A reality where the Black Lady and her Father, Prince Darien, lead the forces of the Negaverse. The death of Queen Beryl at the hands of Prince Darien caused a rift to open. The rift was a doorway that led directly into the Crystal Tokyo Throne room.  
  
Zoisite, Malachite, Nephrite and Jadeite made short work of the palace Guards. The Senshi retreated to the depths of the palace to summon help. But something went wrong.  
  
The Senshi of the past arrived, along with Molly, Serena's best friend, and David, computer genius who is unable to walk and confined to a wheelchair. He is also Mina's Boyfriend. But, the Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, and Venus of Crystal Tokyo were sent back.  
  
The Senshi are surprised to be back in Crystal Tokyo. Even more surprised when they realize that While Serena and Darien aren't with them, Molly, David, and the Moon Scepter are. Transforming, the Senshi, with Uranus in charge, return to the Throne Room to stop the Negaverse forces. Molly and David Follow.  
  
During the Battle, Molly, who still carries the Torch for the Nephrite of her reality, acts to save him from one of Mars's Fireballs. Touched by her act, and remembering the love his Molly had given him unconditionally before her death and his return to the Negaverse, Nephrite defends her from the hands of Jadeite.  
  
In an attempt to turn the tide, Pluto once more uses her Forbidden Attack, weakening the floor where Venus tries to defend David from the Negaverse Forces. An unforeseen and (unseen until later) side effect of the attack is a developing vortex, leading to various parts of the world of our Senshi at utterly random times, opens and slowly grows in the throne room. The floor caves in, and Venus and David Fall. Her last sight of the throne room is the Senshi, the Royal Family, Nephrite, and Molly being imprisoned in a cage of Dark Energy.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Venus rolled over and opened her eyes. Her Sailor Suit was gone. Except for the orange band that she wore around her neck as Senshi, she was dressed in the parka and heavy jeans she had been wearing before Pluto had sucked them into the Time Warp that had spit them out onto the floor of the throne room. Pluto. . .oh yeah. she was dead. Again.  
  
You would think that after the first time, she would learn not to use that forbidden attack. It was called a forbidden attack for good reason. She shook her head to clear it and then stopped because of the headache. Ouch.  
  
She removed the band and put in a pocket. Fat lot of good it did her now. Then she looked around. She was in a huge Cavern made entirely out of Crystal. It reminded her of when Bertie tried to freeze herself to death. Except it wasn't as cold. Small comfort. A low moan reached her ears. Behind a slab of crystal that came up to her waist, David lay face down underneath his wheelchair.  
  
"David! Are you all right?" She shoved the chair off him and cradled his head. "David, answer me, please." His eyes opened and locked with hers.  
  
"Ooooh. Now there's a sight I like waking up to. Hello Mina."  
  
"Are you okay?"  
  
"Aside from bumps and bruises. Yeah. Where's my chair?"  
  
"Over here." She righted the chair and wheeled it back. "It was lying on top of you."  
  
"Well that explains my backache." With a little effort, she got him back in his chair. "Thanks Mina, where are we?"  
  
"I don't know. I think this is some kind of vault or basement." David frowned and ran his finger along the slab.  
  
"More like a Basement Vault. I don't think this place has been used in years, decades, perhaps centuries. But I doubt it."  
  
"Why? It's dusty."  
  
"But it's not dusty enough. To the casual observer, this place has been abandoned, but the dust is too thin."  
  
Mina leaned against the slab. "So now what?"  
  
David pointed behind and to her right.  
  
"You wheel me over there so I can take a look at that." She followed his finger. On the other side of the room was what looked like a Computer terminal and a circular dais. Mina grabbed the handles of his chair and pushed him over to the terminal.  
  
"You know about computers?" She teased.  
  
"Yeah." he deadpanned as his fingers danced over keys. "Hey, this is weird." He looked over at Mina, who was examining the dais. "Mina, I think you should see this. It's written in symbols but I can read it."  
  
"What does it say?"  
  
"Whosoever holds the Moon Crystal and speaks the words Moon Power shall don the armor of the Crystal Knight. Champion of the Queen of the Moon Kingdom." He sat back. "The Crystal Knight. Wow." Mina was also impressed, but for different reasons.  
  
"Where is this, Moon Crystal?" David's fingers danced over the keys again.  
  
"There. On the side of the dais. The octagon crystal with the Moon on it." She pulled it out and handed it to him.  
  
"Thanks." He stuck the crystal in his jacket pocket and continued to type.  
  
"Hmmmmm." He hit more keys and the view on the monitor changed to that of the throne room. They were in trouble. The Senshi were either out cold, or just about there. The Royal Family sat in one corner. Rini and Darien were both out, but the Queen was hanging on.  
  
Jadeite and the others were playing with the Moon scepter. The Wise Man and figure in dark robes were conferring. Darien and the Black Lady looked bored. The Screen blanked and returned to diagrams.  
  
"According to this, that dais is an elevator to the throne room. Just step on it." Venus nodded and pulled out her wand.  
  
"VENUS STAR POWER!" Venus bounded onto the elevator and it began rise. David waved good luck and turned back to the console. Touching keys, he brought up the throne room. He was worried about Mina, the last thing he wanted was for her to get hurt. But she was a Senshi. This was her job.. Frowning, he fingered the Moon Crystal and settled back to watch.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Venus crouched down as the elevator reached the end of it's climb. As soon as she could see the throne room, she leaped.  
  
"Venus Love Chain,.........Encircle!" Darien and the Black Lady found themselves pressed against each other. Zoisite, however, was quicker on her feet.  
  
"Zoi!" But Venus had already hit the floor and was back in the air again via a pile of cushions. She landed by the far wall, snatched a sword from a wall hanging and bounded into the air again. Zoisite met her in mid air. A single slash of the sword knocked it from Venus's hand. Then Zoisite dazed her with the flat of her sword.  
  
Venus rolled over. Her headache was worse this time, and iguanas were doing a country line dance before her eyes.  
  
"Mina, are you okay."  
  
"Y-yeah. I'm fine. Venus sat up, and instantly regretted it. She was in the cage of Dark Energy. Neo-Queen Serenity was sitting by her.  
  
"Be as still as you can. The cage drains energy from you. The more you struggle, the more energy it drains." Venus sat back.  
  
"You were very brave."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"Now we have no hope. But at least David might get away. Where is he?"  
  
"In this funky cellar beneath this room. He found something called the Moon Crystal."  
  
"So that's where it has been these many years."  
  
"You know about it?"  
  
"Only what......No, the timeline must be preserved. I can't tell you." Venus sat up and looked where she thought the camera might be. 'Moon Power' she mouthed 'Moon Power' Then she sat back down.  
  
"Can he help us?"  
  
"If he saw that."  
  
"But will he?"  
  
"He'd better. If we die, I'm gonna kill him."  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Jadeite stood before them.  
  
"Drop the Cage Malachite."  
  
"But-"  
  
"They're not going anywhere. The cage has made them weak." Malachite made a dismissive gesture and the cage vanished. Nephrite was jerked from the floor and landed at Jeddite's feet. Jadeite chuckled, reaching a hand down to grab Nephrite's hair.  
  
"First, we remove a traitor."  
  
"Nobody's moving anything Jadeite. Except me." David, reclining in his chair was riding the elevator into view. "And I'm taking out the trash. You want a fight? Well here I am!" Now that the cage was gone, Venus felt her strength returning.  
  
"Venus get everybody out! This is my party!" Zoisite leapt into the air.  
  
"Zoi!" David slammed into the rear wall.  
  
"David! Venus screamed. "No!" Strong hands clamped on her shoulder.  
  
"You can't interfere." Venus turned to the Queen  
  
"But they'll kill him!" David dodged another blast by rolling.  
  
"Venus!" he screamed "Get out of here!" Venus could feel a tear roll down her cheek.  
  
"But, David! I-"  
  
"I know! I feel the same way! Go!" With one last look back, Venus ran. Neo- Queen Serenity shook her head, and touched the control for the blast door.  
  
Malachite smiled as he lifted David off his feet.  
  
"Any last words?"  
  
"Actually, yeah." David held up the crystal. "MOON POWER!" A lightning bolt stabbed down, throwing Malachite off his feet. Electric bolts crackled, paintings and wall hangings fell to the ground. When the smoke cleared David had been replaced by an awesome sight. The Crystal Knight was huge. Taller than the other world Darien, who was the tallest one there, he was well over seven feet.  
  
In the center of his chest, the symbol of the Moon Glowed brightly. The fingers ended in razor-sharp points. One hand clutched a lance. Each end had a razor sharp blade  
  
"Step right up, hurry, hurry, hurry! Everybody gets a chance to die. Sorry, C.O.D.'s not accepted, D.O.A's only. All Major credit card and Organs accepted, Operators are standing by."  
  
The lance lashed out at a Negaverse soldier. It caught him just under the chin and hurled him off his feet.  
  
He went through the rest of the Guards with a similar efficiency. Then he moved on. Zoisite and Malachite were dispatched by the flat of the lance to the side of the throat. The Amazons required nearly a minute to deal with. Diamant, Esmeraud, Safiiru, Rubeus, the four sisters, and Eudial attacked as one. Jadeite just stood to one side and watched.  
  
Prisma went down clutching her abdomen, trying to keep the intestines in. Avery and Catsy were dispatched in a similar Fashion. Only Bertie managed to make it out a window. But she would never look out of her right eye again.  
  
Eudial and The Knight circled. Sword and Lance clanged together again and again. Eudial swung at his knees. The lance went vertical. The lower end blocked the slice, the top end slammed into Eudial's head between her eyes.  
  
Eesmerood and Demando found their arms tied together, literally. Safiiru had to try and put his lungs back inside his chest, stumbling back and knocking himself, Emeraudes and Diamant into the vortex Pluto's attack had opened.  
  
Rubius took the wisest course and teleported out minus a leg. Darien stepped away from the wall and drew his sword.  
  
"You are good. Your savagery surpasses Malachite's. He was into pain too." Darien removed his cape and jacket. "They were amateurs. I am the Champion of the Negaverse. You will die on the point of my sword." The Knight's visor glowed.  
  
"Two words: Darien Kabob." Darien only smiled.  
  
"We shall see."  
--------------------------------  
  
It was a scene out of Dante's Inferno. Fires burned. Darien and his opponent noticed nothing. The others had either left, or died of their injuries. The Wise Man and his robed companion watched from the dais. Jadeite and The Black Lady watched from the walls.  
  
Deep inside the Crystal Knight's mind, David struggled against the Bloodlust that had cut him off from his transformed and armored body. He and the Knight circled on a battlefield straight out of Hell. Volcanoes erupted. Lava moved past their feet. The air was thick with soot and dust. Lightning struck.  
  
"This is insane! We should be working together, not fighting!" David coughed. The Knight made an encompassing gesture.  
  
"You are weak, you are not me. You are handicapped, useless."  
  
"I am not useless, you are me, I am you. We have to work together. The senseless violence you're committing has to be stopped."  
  
"I am decimating the Negaverse."  
  
"By killing them?" The Knight chuckled.  
  
"If I have to. You don't understand the true nature of the Moon Crystal do you? I am your rage and hate. Given form. I cannot rest until the Enemy is destroyed. Then and only then, can I turn back into you. But I'm not going to. I hate you. I hate your weak body. I hate the fact that Mina doesn't deserve you. I hate that you can't descend steps like a man should. That she has to get stuff when you go shopping. That she and her friends have to defend you from the bullies. That you are weak." David laughed.  
  
"You don't get it do you? She feels the way about me because I respect her. Because I treat her like a human being. That is why she's with me. Underneath that armor you're me to. What would she think if she saw you acting like this?" David held out his hand "Let me help. We are the Crystal Knight. Not you, not me. Us." The Knight held out his own hand. The instant their fingers made contact, David found himself looking out of the visor.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Deep inside the palace, Venus paced. "What's taking him so long?"  
  
"Chill out Venus." Mars looked up from her game of Chess with Mercury.  
  
"Mars is right" Mercury said. "We're all to weak to fight anyway." Jupiter nodded agreement. She stood up. For a second she was bathed in a green light that seemed to come from everywhere, within her, and no where. Lita hunched into her jacket.  
  
"Man, it's cold." Lita tucked her wand away in an inside pocket. "How can we get some heat in here?" Mars dragged some pieces of wood from a corner where a chair had been broken.  
  
"Mars, fireball, IGNITE!" The Fire burst to life. Lita tossed scrap wood on the fire to make it burn brighter. Nephrite began breaking up some of the furniture to add to the fire. Uranus and Neptune sat in the corner, their hands squeezed tightly. Venus slammed one fist into the wall.  
  
"They'll kill him!"  
  
"Most likely." Nephrite commented, trying to figure out the best way to turn a chair into manageable firewood pieces.  
  
"Shut up Nephrite, you're not helping!" Neptune turned back to Venus.  
  
"Venus. Calm down." She put a hand on the Senshi of Love's shoulder. "Believe me, I know how you feel. There was a time I thought I had lost Uranus. My heart was broken. I couldn't eat, drink, or sleep. But she came back. I love her Venus."  
  
"When I lost Darien to the Negaverse and then when his memory was erased, I was a wreck." Neo-Queen Serenity said as she joined them  
  
"I know Serena." Venus looked up. "I was there, remember?"  
  
"Yes. Without you, Without all of you. I think I would have gone mad. But when it was all over, as we walked down the aisle, I realized something. Darien and I were meant to be together. Even a thousand years nor the Negaverse could separate us."  
  
"So?" Neo-Queen Serenity, held on to Venus's shoulders.  
  
"So, If you and David are meant to be together, you will be. It's as simple as that." Venus turned away from the wall, fists balled and tears streaming down her cheeks.  
  
"And what if we're not?" The Queen averted her eyes.  
  
"I-I don't know."  
  
--------------------------------  
  
The Crystal Knight was having a Tough time of it. Darien was a tough opponent and having been bound to a wheelchair for the past three years of his life had left the Knight a little confused as to proper Martial Arts. He was relying on Ten Years of Ninja Films and Chuck Norris movies. But it wasn't easy. He was mostly concerned with keeping his balance.  
  
"I'm surprised at you. I would have expected you to fall by now." Darien Taunted. "You weakling." The Knight Parried and Blocked.  
  
"I am not a weakling. If I was, I'd be dead."  
  
"True."  
  
"Besides" The Knight blocked another thrust. "Sailor Venus and I have a date Saturday to go see Revenge of The Killer Vampire Bunny Nun Mutants."  
  
"I remember seeing that." Darien said as he thrust and slashed. "Wasn't bad. Lousy acting though. Made it even funnier."  
  
"With a title like that, what did you expect? Robotech?"  
  
"At least that was good. Lisa Hayes, what a cutie."  
  
"Somebody as evil as you, I'm surprised you would notice."  
  
"Hey, just because I conquer planets doesn't mean My Hormones don't work."  
  
"Whatever."  
--------------------------------  
  
The King stood up and wrapped his cape around Neo-Queen Serenity. "She's right. You can't go off Half-cocked hell-bent on a rescue mission. You're too weak, we all are." Everyone nodded agreement.  
  
"Oh Nephrite? Can't you do something? Like you did with my cousin Katie? Increase their energy or something?"  
  
Saturn looked at each of them. Her feelings on the matter clear  
  
"It doesn't matter." Nephrite looked up from his watching molly. "It doesn't work that way. Molly believe me, If I could, I would in an instant."  
  
"But why?"  
  
"When I increased Katie's energy level to it's peak, it was to create a monster. I don't think I could increase the energy of the Senshi without creating monsters."  
  
"But could you try?"  
  
"Yes I could try. But when Katie's Monster appeared, she fainted. That would leave us with eight fully charged Monsters, and eight unconscious Sailor Senshi."  
  
"Oh your right, but what are we gonna do?"  
  
"What about one?" Everybody looked up. Venus stood tall. "Increase my energy. I'll go."  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
"If it can save David, I'll do it."  
  
Nephrite stood up, beckoning to Venus.  
  
"Stand before me." Venus did so. "Forces of the Negaverse, increase this girl's energy to it's maximum output!" Venus found herself charged with energy. She turned on her heel and bolted for the throne room.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
The Crystal Knight was tiring. He really needed practice. But he had none and Darien was giving no quarter. If didn't have some kind of help. He was gonna lose. The Lance slashed through Darien's sleeve, and drew blood. Darien only smiled.  
  
"First Blood To you." They separated and circled. The Fire was out of control. Flames raged. Darien wasn't even sweating. What was burnable was burning. The Knight kept seeing Father Tellerman at the sermon. Father Tellerman. Good old Father Tellerman. He did love to preach about Fire and Brimstone. Too Bad the Knight couldn't smell anything in this armor.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Venus Charged through the Place. The song "My Only Love" Running through her head. She had never felt more alive. Or more dedicated. Up the ramps, through the halls, navigating strictly on instinct that was coming from God- knew-where. She made a short prayer for guidance and strength. Amy may be the Catholic of the team, But Venus was 90% Atheist. But right now, she needed all the help she could get. She spun on her heel and moved down a corridor then spun right and dashed through a doorway that she would have missed under normal circumstances.  
  
David, I'm coming. Hang on darling.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
The Knight was in fact hanging on, for his life. The fire had eaten away some of the floor and he and Darien were fighting on a Chandelier. In an effort to maintain Balance, One hand held on to the Chain that suspended the Chandelier from the ceiling. Unfortunately, one of the beams that the chain was tossed over was on Fire. He would have to time this carefully. The Beam began to crack, the Knight leapt for the Floor. Too late, Darien followed and missed, plunging into the hole created by the fire.  
  
Without really knowing why, The Knight grabbed Darien's Collar and yanked him to a safe spot of floor. But it was too late. The Negaverse Champion had second and Third-Degree burns.  
  
"Why? Why did you save my life?"  
  
"Because, that's what I do."  
  
"You are weak. But thank you." Then his eyes opened wide and he gasped. Protruding from his ribs was a Crystal Shard. A few feet away, The Black Lady stood, two fingers stroking her cheek, a slight smile on her face.  
  
"You killed your own Father?"  
  
"He Lost."  
  
The Knight stared. "You killed your own Father because he lost a battle?"  
  
"Yes," she walked over to stand next Darien's body. "Good-bye Father." His eyes fluttered.  
  
"Daughter, you did this?" She nodded. "I taught you too well." His head turned to the right, and he lay still. The Knight crossed himself and started to recite a prayer, but was interrupted when the Lady blasted him. He flew against the wall. Under the impact the wall cracked.  
  
Then everything blew straight to hell.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
The fire had reached a forgotten stack of bombs and blew out the wall, filling the skies of Crystal Tokyo with thick black smoke and dropping glass and crystal shards on the people below. The Lady threw energy blasts around. The Knight wilted under the relentless barrage.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Venus burst through the door. Seconds later she was followed by the others. But they were in no shape to fight. Only Molly, Rini, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune were not present. Saturn, Molly, and Rini were making their way through an escape tunnel to an escape craft hidden outside Crystal Tokyo that would take them Moon City. A secret outpost buried under the remains of the old Moon Kingdom where they hoped the heir to the throne would stay alive long enough to retake the throne. The craft was in constant readiness to launch. Neither the Senshi nor the King and Queen expected to survive.  
  
Already, Crystal Tokyo was almost deserted as per their orders. Uranus and Neptune were on their way to a Fusion Reactor Buried under Crystal Nucleus when Crystal Tokyo was founded. If The Senshi lost, Uranus and Neptune had orders to blow the reactor. The explosion would blow Crystal Tokyo, and everyone in it well into the next millennium. Hopefully, it would also take whatever remnants of the Negaverse with them before they escaped through the rift.  
--------------------------------  
  
Uranus and Neptune arrived at the Reactor Control Center.  
  
"Now what?" Uranus touched several buttons.  
  
"We wait."  
  
--------------------------------  
  
The Knight was having a far less interesting time. The Lady was far more ruthless than her father and cared nothing for the code of battle. In other words, she fought dirty. Swordplay combined with energy blasts, punches, and kicks. She took full advantage of his inexperience on two legs.  
  
"You're not like your Father." The Knight Parried and dodged a kick. She snarled.  
  
"My Father was a fool." The Knight Blocked a swift energy-jab aimed at his head. The others were busy Fighting Jadeite, who had decided to Join in. Mars had picked up a sword and parrying Jadeite Blow for Blow. Jupiter and Mercury threw attack after attack. The Wise Man turned to his robed companion.  
  
"They Fight Well." He said. His Companion turned to look. From the depths of the hood, What might have been eyes glowed.  
  
This Battle is not over until it is over. The Wise man bowed his head.  
  
"Yes Master."  
--------------------------------  
  
The Knight stared down the point of the sword at his throat. The Lady, smiled. Venus had collapsed, her monster had the other Senshi. She raised the sword high.  
  
"Good night, Knight." She raised the sword higher, then brought it down.  
  
"Rini! Stop!" The sword slammed into the ground right next to his head. That had sounded like Serena, but the queen was out. The Lady was staring into the back of the room .The fires were mostly out. The ones that were left, lit the room with an Erie glow. The Lady smiled.  
  
"So You're back among the sane." From out of the shadows, a woman stepped. Her clothes were filthy and torn. Her long Blond Hair was dirty and tangled. But her face had a determined look. The Black Lady leaned on her sword. "Hi Mom. Long Time, no see."  
  
"Put the sword down Rini, or you're Moon dust."  
  
"Moon dust?" The Lady laughed, "Mom, do you know how lame that sounds?" Unnoticed, the Knight got to his feet. Eyes darting back and forth. Two Serenas? then he mentally kicked himself. Of course, the other Rini had to have a mother.  
  
"Sadistic bunch of Bastards." He observed to no one in particular. "She was probably better off dead."  
  
"I don't know where I've been. But I'm not going back." The Knight seized The chance that the Black Lady's distraction offered to snatch her sword and pin her arms behind her back. But he had forgotten to brace himself. With a twist of her upper body she threw him across the room. He landed at the base of the steps that led up to the throne. The Lady sneered.  
  
"I often wondered why Dad kept you around and didn't kill you like he killed your friends. I can still hear their delightful screams."  
  
"Moon Crystal Power!" Sailor Moon Faced her daughter. "Rini, surrender. This isn't you."  
  
"Oh yes it is....." She unleashed blasts of Energy that threw Moon around like a rag doll. She finally landed dangerously close a burning pile of Tapestries. The Lady smiled thinly. "I know it's Tradition to argue with your mom as a teenager, but since you were a Blubbering Vegetable while I was going through Puberty," A Ball of crackling energy formed around her Hand. "Let's make up for lost time." The impact lifted Moon off the floor to slam into a wall.  
  
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Venus stirred. The others were unconious. Mars was Bleeding from a nasty Gash in her forehead. Jupiter's arm was at an odd angle. Either Broken or dislocated. Probably both. Mercury was the worst off. What wasn't broken was bleeding. She would be in the Hospital for weeks. Assuming she survived this hellhole long enough to get there. Hell, that was assuming they all survived. Right Now, the idea of Survival was notoriously laughable. David's armored form was still. This other Sailor Moon was being whipped. Some things were the same, no matter what your dimension. She began a slow crawl to where he lay. Her leg hurt. Probably broken. She started to get up to a sitting position and winced. God, she still had that damn headache.  
  
David slowly swam back to reality. This armor may have been impenetrable, but being knocked about in it hurt. Venus's face appeared.  
  
"Pssst. David? Can you hear me?"  
  
"I hope never not to be able to hear that voice that makes my heart soar."  
  
"Flirt. Can you move?"  
  
"I think so. Are you okay?"  
  
"Broken Leg, bruises and that damn headache." Venus looked over her shoulder. The hole in the wall caused by the bomb explosion looked out over the city. In the distance, she saw a dot lift off from the hills and blast into the sky. That would be Saturn, Molly, and Rini, bound for Moon City. She wished them luck.  
  
Sailor Moon opened her eyes and got to her knees.  
  
Darien Being Captured by the Negaverse. Him Laughing as Beryl tortured Mina, Amy, Raye and Lita. Raye screaming as the Negaverse soldiers took turns with them. Being Paraded in front of Darien in versions of their Scout uniforms that nobody would even consider worth being termed demeaning. Darien having her chained to his bed. Then, the capper. Rini, sweet, two year old Rini, stabbing her in the knee with a pair of scissors.  
  
After that, she didn't remember much but dim images and an overwhelming feeling of dispair. Then she woke up and the first thing she had seen was Rini all grown up, threatening some guy in armor. Something, perhaps some old remnant of Sailor Moon, had galvanized her to action. She looked at her knee. It was still there, a nice big scar.  
  
Oh yes, now she was getting tossed around by her own daughter. Oh thank you Metallia. You steal my man, You steal my daughter, You kill my friend. Oh yes, I owe you.  
  
Something deep inside her snapped.  
  
I owe you big time.  
  
"Moon Crescent Beam Smash" Her hands unleashed a bolt of energy. It slammed into the Black Lady's back, lifting her off her feet and hoisting her off her feet and into the wall. Face first. She rolled to the floor. Blood gushing from her nose. It stopped after a few seconds. She got up. Her eyes radiated pure fury.  
  
"Okay, I was going to kill you nice and quick because you're my mother. Now, I'm going to peel your skin off and then dip you in salt." A metal hand slammed into her shoulder. Fingertips cutting her shoulder. She spun around as much as the hand would allow. The Crystal Knight. That stupid, tin-plated metal encased Git.  
  
"Let go of me you armored buffoon!" She snapped trying to twist out of his grip. He lifted her of the floor.  
  
"I ought to throw you out that hole in the wall. But I'm not a killer."  
  
"Tell that to Prisma, Avery, Catsy, Eudial, and Safiiru! They were my friends, my mentors. And you killed them. YOU METAL SON OF A BITCH!" She twisted up and kicked him in the face. He didn't even react. She got a look through the dark, smoked glass, of the visor. She could see his eyes. They were not human, more reptilian. That, for the first time, scared her. She had finally met fear, and decided she didn't like it.  
  
David was also experiencing new emotions.  
  
Do it. The Knights Voice whispered. Kill her.   
  
I can't.  
  
Yes you can.  
  
He toughened his resolve. This was not going to end in death. Sailor Moon had turned the Rini of this Dimension into a good girl, maybe the same for her. The Lady smiled.  
  
"I know what you're thinking. You're wondering if the Moon Scepter can be used to turn me into a goody-two shoes." She twisted around and fired off a blast. Sailor Moon screamed and was still. She turned back to the Knight. "Sailor Moon needs the Imperium Sliver Crystal to transform. she's too weak to do it any other way. The only other person in the room who can become Sailor Moon is out cold." She laughed coldly. "The Senshi are battered and broken. Uranus and Neptune are three miles underground and six miles away. Saturn, the most powerful among you, is gone. Sailor Pluto, is dead." She twisted out of his grip. The claws serving nerves and tendons in her shoulder. "I seem to be at a crossroads. Do I hurl Myself out the side of this building? Or do I simply Teleport out of here?"  
  
"Noooooo." Sailor Moon had dragged herself up on her elbows. "Rini. Please, God no, don't jump. Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." She slumped back to the floor. The Black Lady shrugged as best she could and jumped. The Knight got to the hole just in time to see her vanish.  
  
"The Timestream has been warped. She has gone back in time." Sailor Pluto stood at the doorway. "If she gets ahold of a Star Point, Crystal Tokyo will no longer be here." She walked over to where Jadeite stood next to the Monster.  
  
"Seize him" She ordered, jabbing her staff in his direction. "Do not release him until I tell you otherwise."  
  
"Yes, Mistress." The Monster whirled and grabbed Jadeite.  
  
"Oh Bravo." The Wise Man Clapped his hands. "Bravo." Jadeite Sneered. "Bravo yourself. Who are you anyway?" The Wise Man stood up and withdrew his hood. His Face was scarred and disfigured.  
  
"You're-You're me!"  
  
"I'm the Jadeite of this reality you idiot, and there is only room for one" He fired a burst of energy that fried the captive Jadeite. "There." He turned and waved a hand. The Rift sealed it's self shut. "That oughta do it." Then he and his robed companion vanished.  
  
"They have also escaped into the Timestream." Pluto waved her staff and a Glowing doorway appeared. "Sailors Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Mars require medical attention. If sailor Mercury dies here, Time will be undone."  
  
"Wait. The other Sailor Moon was awake. "Here. One hand held the Imperium Sliver Crystal. "I'm done for. Take it Crystal Knight. Take it." He took it, and stuck it in his belt buckle. He glowed. "You now have the power of all the Senshi. Use it wisely." She slumped. The Knight put two fingers to the side of her neck. After a Moment, he looked up.  
  
"She's Dead Jim. Sorry, I always wanted to say that." Venus cracked a smile Then winced. "As soon as I get back, I'm getting a years supply of Tylenol."  
  
The Knight Scooped Up Mars And Mercury. Pluto waved her staff and Molly appeared. Venus Sat down in David's wheelchair. The King Lay Jupiter on her Lap. The Knight turned and Darted through the portal. Pluto Handed Venus the Moon Scepter and Molly pushed her through the doorway.  
  
-------------------------------- Two Months Later.  
  
David bit into his apple as Mina sat down on the steps. Her leg was encased in a cast that ran above her knee.  
  
"Stupid crutches." David hid his chuckle behind a bite.  
  
"Oh they're not that bad."  
  
"Too true, but I still hate using them."  
  
Raye fingered the bandage on her forehead..  
  
"At least we got out of that alive."  
  
"Yeah. But Amy..." Lita shifted her arm in the sling. "She got trashed."  
  
"When are they going to release her from the hospital?"  
  
David wound up and pitched the apple into the woods surrounding Raye's Temple.  
  
"I spoke to her yesterday. Gave her a few pointers on chairs. She's supposed to get out today."  
  
"Okay dudes and Dudetts. I got the Party stuff!" Chad set the cake down on the table. "I got the streamers, banner, and the Balloons.  
  
"Great." David rolled to the table. "Hang the Banner. We'll start with the streamers." He grabbed the roll and threw it over a rafter.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Amy winced as the minivan bounced on a rough stretch of road.  
  
"Amy, are you sure you want to do this? The Doctor said you should rest." "I'm fine Mom." Doctor Anderson reached over and patted Amy's arm cast.  
  
"I'm sure dear." Amy tried to make herself more comfortable. The van hit a really nasty pothole and she almost cried out. To take her mind off the pain, she began reviewing her multiplication tables, backwards.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Lita winced and shifted her arm in the sling.  
  
"Wow, this hurts."  
  
"You're complaining? I'm the one who's got this itchy cast on." Venus used a back scratcher to reach beneath the cast. "Ahhhhhh."  
  
"Yeah. Well at least you have a cast to hold your leg in place. My arm is shifted out of position. Broken and dislocated. That means I can't have a cast because the extra weight would pull it out if the socket again." David wheeled up next to the table.  
  
"C'mon you guys, I saw the van coming up the road. Let's hurry."  
  
They were waiting outside when the mini-van pulled to a stop. Chad ran over to the van. Together, he and Doctor Anderson hauled Amy's chair out of the van and up into the temple.  
  
David put on the brakes and locked his wheels. Amy was a mess. Her two months in the hospital had let her hair grow out. It was now longer and hair washings had removed the blue dye. One arm was up and encased in a cast. Her ribs were taped, she dual black eyes and a concussion. One leg was broken in three places and she had broken her foot in the other. But she would make a full recovery.  
  
Raye was her hands. Amy was having so much fun, she almost forgot about the pain.  
  
Hours later, they were all in the woods. Serena and Darien had showed up just minutes ago and she was pushing Amy's chair. Mina pushed David's. Lita was explaining to Molly about the Senshi. Nephrite, who had returned to the identity of J. Maxsfield Stanton, walked at the rear. For the first time he felt contentment. At peace with himself and the world. He promised himself to walk in the woods daily. The Senshi kept watching him by occasional glances. Nobody really trusted him. Not even Molly. He sighed. He would earn their trust.  
  
They finally came to a clearing. David called a halt.  
  
"We need to confer and I wanted to do it away from Chad, Amy's mom and Raye's granddad. But we're missing two." At that moment, Greg and Bertie ran up.  
  
"What's up guys? I can't stay long, Avery's in charge today and she's driving us crazy."  
  
"Amy. Are you okay?"  
  
"I'm fine Greg." David cleared his throat.  
  
"Okay, I'm going to make this as brief as possible. Two months ago, Mina, Lita, Amy, Raye, Molly and Myself were yanked out of the snow fair and into Crystal Tokyo. It was being invaded. Now this is where it gets tricky.  
  
The invaders were from an alternate Negaverse. Not the one where Bertie came from. But another one, a more violent one. Their history parallel ours up to a point. Like here, Darien was captured and Converted by the Negaverse. That's where it split. In that reality, The Senshi failed to turn him back, and, as far as we can determine from captured soldiers, The Senshi there were captured, tortured, raped mentally and physically, then most likely killed. Nine months after that, the alternate Sailor Moon gave birth to Rini.  
  
At the time, she was almost at the edge. At two years old, that alternate Rini Stabbed her mother in the knee with a pair of scissors. This was the breaking point and she retreated so far into herself that she was a little more than an animal." The other's faces wore expressions of varying degrees of horror and disgust. Even Darien was horrified. He and Serena had death grips on the other's hand. David took a deep breath and continued. "We can confirm the deaths of the alternate Sailors Mars, Mercury, and Jupiter. Sailor Venus escaped the torture and rape and presumably is still alive.  
  
Sailor Saturn swapped sides and now works for Queen Metallia. The soldiers have no idea of her location. Senshi Pluto, Uranus and Neptune vanished the night before their execution. Presumably, Pluto used the remains of her power to get them out of jail. Nobody knows where or when they are. It's possible they're in our reality and hiding. With makeup and plastic surgery these days we may even know them. They could be our parents. Chris might even be Doctor Anderson. It would explain a few things. The similarity in haircuts, why you two hit it off so well." Amy scowled.  
  
"That's not funny."  
  
"Is it?" He faced Serena. "Your mom reminds me an awful lot of Rose."  
  
"Yeah....." Darien shrugged. "But Chris and Rose are. . ."  
  
"Yeah, I know. I said it was possible. I also said they might be in our reality. Only Luna and Artimes can sense a Senshi. But they're not here." Bertie looked up.  
  
"I still don't understand what this has to do with us." She gestured at Greg. David pulled out a notebook.  
  
"Most of the Alternate Negaverse soldiers were killed. These people are unaccounted for. These are from that Alternate reality. The Black Lady, Rubius, Demando, Esmerelda, Zoisite, Malachite, 231 assorted soldiers, the Seven Shadows. . .and Bertie."  
  
"What? You mean there's another me out there? And another Rubius?" Bertie's eyes darted around. "My Rubius was bad enough, this one's more violent? And what about this other me? If she's more violent, than I was, and I was pretty bad, she'll come after me! They both will!"  
  
"Not for a while. They were all badly injured. Rubius is missing a leg, Bertie lost an eye, Zoisite and Malachite are probably hiding from The Black Lady, who's out an arm. Demando and Esmerelda were tied together by their arms, so at the very least, they're off the active list for a loooooong time, if not dead. With the exception of The terrible two, and those soldiers, we don't have much to worry about." Lita frowned.  
  
"What about Jadeite and that robed guy?" "Oh yes. The wise man is Jadeite." Bertie frowned and got up to pace.  
  
"I met Jadeite once. Back when I was with the Negaverse. He struck me as pure evil. So was Malachite, and Zoisite.........And you." Her finger stabbed at Nephrite. "You were with Malachite. You trained the other three. But you died. Zoisite told me."  
  
"This Nephrite is from that Alternate Negaverse I mentioned. He's kept his powers, but he's on our side." Greg rubbed his temples.  
  
"I can't blame you. I'm having a bit of a time wrapping me head around myself."  
  
His accent of his native Wales was creeping in and he paused to clear his throat. "As I was saying. We got Alternate Versions of The Negaverse's worst inhabitants running amok in our reality. And if they encounter their duplicates. . .Well, that gets us into Quantum Physics and temporal probability. I have a hard enough time with Basic Algebra."  
  
Darien frowned. "So we have Some of our worst enemies getting ready to run amok. What about the past?" Mina nodded.  
  
"Didn't I hear Pluto say something about the Timestream?"  
  
"Yeah. That's why Nephrite and I have to leave."  
  
"Leave?" Mina Gasped. "Why?"  
  
"Somebody has to track down the duplicates and deal with them before they start screwing around with Reality. Between Nephrite's powers and my own, we should be able to stop them before they Start. I hope." Mina jumped up.  
  
"No. You Can't go. I won't let you!"  
  
"Mina, I have to. This is the only way. Somebody has to stop them. I have a way to spend the summer, and Nephrite can redeem himself."  
  
-------------------------------- Three months later. . .  
  
Mina kicked a stone. It bounced across the drive way. Lita looked up from her Harley.  
  
Raye jumped from the steps and almost fell. Lita chuckled. Mina sniffed.  
  
Lita looked up and then walked over to where Mina stood. "Aw, c'mon, Mina," Lita said. "David is doing fine."  
  
"I want to believe that, I really do."  
  
Molly stepped out of the door and down to where Mina stood. Music drifted out of the temple. "I'm worried about Nephrite-Maxsfield. They have been gone for so long." She cocked her head. "Listen." Then they heard it to. The sound of a car coming up the road at high speed.  
  
Molly's face split into a grin. "I know that car. Only one car sounds like that! Maxsfield's!" The Lamborgini came to a stop. Even through the tinted windows, Mina could see that only the driver was the car's sole inhabitant. Her hand squeezed Molly's shoulder.  
  
The driver's side door opened and Nephrite stepped out. Mina' breath caught in her throat. Molly ran to him and wrapped her arms tightly around his waist. For a moment, he held her there. This his eyes met Mina's, and, for a second, time stood still. He took a small cloth bag out of his pocket and tossed it at her. Mina caught it, and opened it.  
  
The air was filled with a wail of anguish and pain. It was an inhuman cry. Raye caught her as Mina collapsed. Her cry faded and she sobbed. Raye looked at Lita with questioning eyes. Lita shrugged and opened the bag. Raye watched as Lita's face went from confusion to Horror, Grief and understanding. With shaking hands, Lita emptied the bag into her hand.  
  
The Moon Crystal, The Imperium Sliver Crystal, and a jewelry box. Raye's glance said it all. Lita opened the box. Inside was the biggest diamond ring she had ever seen.  
  
"W-what-what Happened?" Lita asked. Maxsfield took a deep breath.  
  
"We were in London. David saw this ring in the window. He bought it. He spoke of nothing else then giving it to Mina when we got back.  
  
We were the way to the car, when we saw the Black Lady bounding from rooftop to rooftop. We followed her to a warehouse on the Thames. It was a trap. She tried to kill him and succeeded, getting herself killed in the process. With his dying breath, he asked me to bring those items back. . .and to take over the role of The Crystal Knight."  
  
"Can I please be left alone?" Mina Held out her hand for the bag's contents. Wordlessly, Lita handed them over then retreated to Nephrite's car. The others followed. At the car, Maxsfield planted his hands on the car's hood.  
  
"If he had been a Negaverse warrior, he would be one of Beryl's own. He was a noble fighter. But he wasn't a Negaverse warrior. Still. . ." His eyes flashed he spun around and jabbed his hand out at a nearby tree. It immediately disintegrated. "He was my friend." Lita looked over at Mina. She was on her knees, the crystals and the ring in her lap. She was sobbing heavily.  
  
She slipped the ring on her finger. Lita scuffed gravel with her foot.  
  
"Boy, she really is bummed about David isn't she?" Molly wrapped her arms around Maxsfield's arm. He smiled down at her.  
  
"But isn't there a way to bring him back or something? Like with what happened after Beryl?"  
  
"I wish it were that simple Molly." Raye leaned against the car's hood "But we really aren't sure how the Imperium Sliver Crystal works. The only ones who know for sure are Serena and Amy."  
  
"Yeah. Amy's at that computer seminar and Serena's out of town with her family."  
  
"What about Luna and Artimes?" Molly looked back and forth. "I mean, they were part of the Moon Kingdom. They were Queen Serenity's most trusted assistants." Lita looked around.  
  
"I think they took Diana into the woods, teach her wilderness survival or something." Raye nodded.  
  
"I got up early today and saw them." At the sound of sobbing they turned. Mina was curled up in a ball. Her shoulders shook.  
  
Abruptly, she stopped shaking and sat up. Her eyes were locked on the Moon Crystal. It was glowing, pulsing to some inaudible rhythm. Above her a circular distortion appeared. Mina's eyes darted back and forth between the crystal and the distortion. Lita and the others approached it. Slowly. Nephrite thrust Molly behind him. From far away, they heard a yell.  
  
"You guys hear that?"  
  
"Yeah, what is it?"  
  
Nephrite's eyes began to glow. The yell got louder. Then something flew out of the distortion and crashed to the ground. Then something else flew out and the portal closed.  
  
"David!" Mina Shrieked and wrapped her arms around the Crystal Knight's neck.  
  
"You!" Snarled an new voice. Mina spun. The Black Lady, both arms fully healed, was getting up. She looked pissed. Then, Lita, Raye and Nephrite stood in front of Mina and The Knight. Imposing themselves between them and the Black Lady. The Lady snarled again and Vanished. The Knight pawed at his chest until the lightning bolt flashed and David was restored. Mina immediately kissed him for a long time.  
  
The other Senshi were soon making bets on how long it would be before they came up for air.  
  
The only three who didn't were Molly, who was staring at David in shock, Maxsfield, who was determinedly not watching, and Lita, who had visions of brown hair floating through her head for no reason she could figure out. A bit later the kissing couple returned to the rest of the world.  
  
David grumbled, "Aw nuts. I go to the afterlife and back, and my legs still don't work."  
  
"That's okay. I love you no matter what works."  
  
"What about. . .?" David's grin was wicked.  
  
"Well. . .. . ." Mina blushed. "That would be nice if it worked, but it doesn't matter." She leaned down and they kissed.  
  
Again.  
  
After they came up for air, David's face assumed a thoughtful expression.  
  
"Oh yeah.........It works."  
  
--------------------------------  
  
"First One A has acquired First Power."  
  
"Continue Monitoring ."  
  
"First One A has encountered First One B, no contact, no conversation."  
  
"Continue monitoring on First One A, if First One A attempts contact or conversation with First One B outside of normal parameters. . . ."  
  
"Terminate First One A." 


	2. Crystal Day

David Jones dozed. His wheelchair sat next his bed. Clutched in one hand was a octagon crystal. On the crystal, was a crescent moon. The points of the crystal pointed to centraheadon crystal bound to one side.  
  
"DAVID GET UP! YOU'RE LATE FOR SCHOOL!"  
  
David snorted and shifted. In his dream, his girlfriend Mina was about to remove the top of her swimsuit then she stopped and screamed at him.  
  
"DAVID JONES GET UP!"  
  
"Mrghf." His eyes fluttered open. Oh yeah. School. Ugh.  
  
"DON'T MAKE ME COME UP THERE!"  
  
"OKAY MOM!"  
  
Hiya, squirt."  
  
"Hello Thad." You mongoid.  
  
Thad Jones, David's older brother, fulfilled all the requirements for being a dumb jock. To David, Thad was the sort of person who had to be reminded to breathe. Unfortunutly, Thad was all muscle, ego, and no brain. A dangerous combination.  
  
He snatched the crystal from David's hand.  
  
"What's this? A new bauble? You want it back, Baby?" David's mind raced. He doubled as the Crystal Knight. Superhero and comedian. There were multiple warrents out for the Knight on varying degrees of destruction of property. The Knight was responsible for bringing the city to lead the rest of the world in property damage. Ever since he had first used the crystal to become the Knight, he had taken joy in wrecking stuff. He tried to limit the desruction to the slums and abandoned tenement buildings. They were ready to come down anyway.  
  
To David, it was saving the city money. He was also indirectly responsible for bringing every loony out of the woodwork. As turned out, most them were children of the Moon Kingdom. The servants, apprentices and others. Not to mention the others. Queen Serenity had not only sent the children, but as many of their Parents as she could. Unfortunutly, some Negaverse soldiers had been sent as well. They were the problem. Like the Scouts, They had acquired superpowers and were using them to wreck havoc. It had gotten so bad, that at least one Scout was on patrol at all times. Who was on? He racked his memory. Oh yeah. Nephrite and Bertie. While technically they weren't scouts, they didn't need to sleep either. There are some advantages to not being human.  
  
Speaking of not being Human, Thad still had his crystal.  
  
"Give it back Thaddy."  
  
"My name is not Thaddy dweeb." David screwed up his face to yell. Thad threw the crystal at him. David made a face and hauled himself out of bed and into his chair. Sticking the Crystal in his lap he rolled out of his room to take his shower.  
-------------------------------- "Hi Lita, Hi David. You wanna hear the latest about the shuttle? I can tell you exactly what's in the fuel."  
  
"Blow it, Melvin. Lita wouldn't know, and I don't care." It was lunch. David and Lita were seated on a concrete rise at the back of the school. Through the Chain link fence they could look out over downtown. David was slouched in his chair, legs crossed, his head propped up by one hand as he contemplated his half eaten apple. Lita was busily rummaging in her food sack looking for any extra cookies.  
  
"What about the astronauts? I can tell you all the latest gossip about the astronauts." Melvin thrust the front page in David's face. On the front page was a huge, full color photo of the astronauts. David sat up a little straighter and snatched the paper out of Melvin's hand. He then slouched down and started to read. As he read, Molly joined them.  
  
"Hi, Lita. Wha'cha doing?"  
  
"I dunno. Melvin was bugging us about the shuttle and thrust the paper in David's face. David snatched the paper out of Melvin's hand and he's been reading it." David looked up. His face had a thoughtful expression. Pitching the apple over the fence, he folded the paper to show the photo then pulled out a pen and circled four of the astronauts.  
  
"Molly, send word to Maxsfield. Lita and I have to get to the Launch. As fast as possible."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"None of your bisnuess Melvin. Beat it." Muttering words that aren't repeatable, Melvin stalked off towards the main building. Lunch forgotten, Lita got up to stand next to David. She hadn't known him long. But his cool head and quick thinking had gotten the Scouts out of more than one scrape. He also had an uncanny ability to plan out every contingency. Molly cocked her head.  
  
"What's going on?" She asked  
  
David pointed to the four astronauts he had circled. Lita leaned closer. They looked different. But Lita would know them anywhere. The Black Lady, Malachite, Rubius, and Bertie.  
  
"How-" Lita began only to have David cut her off..  
  
"The Black Lady is up to something. With Beryl dead, The Negaverse is almost dead. The Negamoon is our only concern. But without Rubius and the Sisters, The wiseman-Jadeite, is powerless." Lita nodded. Only months ago, the Scouts had battled alternate versions of their enemies.  
  
Far and away more Evil then anything the scouts had encountered. Only the Timely resurrection of Sailor Moon, or rather, the alternate Sailor Moon had managed to avert disaster. But some of the Alternate Nega-villains had escaped Crystal Tokyo and slipped back into past, or the present, or whatever.  
  
The upshot was, if the Scouts had thought The Black Lady, Malachite, Rubius and Bertie they had battled over the past year and half were bad, these four were far, far, worse. To make matters worse, Lita was the only Scout available. The others were on a school trip. There was no way they would be available to get away. She turned to Molly.  
  
"Tell Nephrite to meet me and David in my loft this afternoon after school." Molly nodded.  
-------------------------------- Lita twisted the key in the lock. With a hum, the elevator dropped down to the floor below her. With a smile, she removed the key. Until she used that key again, the elevator was barred from coming up to her floor. She shoved the heavy sliding door into place and locked it. Whistling a show tune, she rolled the Harley to it's place next to the door.  
  
Lita lived alone. Paul, her Guardian, lived in the apartment beneath her. She hated Paul's Guts and vice versa. Hence the arrangement. Paul was available if nessacary, but she pretty much lived on her own. He paid her rent and gave her money for food, gas, and insurance for the Harley.  
  
She dumped her bag on the couch and walked into the bedroom. The previous tenant had erected ten foot partitions in one corner of the loft. They had also added a door. It was in this walled off area that she had her bed and dresser. The only actual room was the bathroom Boasting a combination shower/bath, it was just the thing for a quick wake-up if she was late for school.  
  
The ceiling had lighting-okay naked bulbs suspended from the ceiling. But at least she didn't have to rely on the halogen floor lamps.  
  
Dressed in her exercise leotard she walked over to the stereo and put on the soundtrack to The Crow. Then, after the warm up, she started on the punching bag. After that, she lifted weights. Then she showered and dressed in a pair of faded jeans and an old angora sweater she had picked up at a garage sale. She packed an overnight duffel and then flopped on the couch to await Nephrite and David. She picked up the remote and switched on the TV.  
  
She was laughing at Bugs Bunny when they arrived. David looked at the TV.  
  
"Seen it five times." Lita looked at him askance. Then switched the TV off and picked up the duffel.  
  
"Lita, it's just you and me on this one. Maxsfield Stanton has an reservation at a business dinner he can't get out of. The Sisters have to get ready for tax time. Mina, Raye, Amy and Serena are on that inter-school trip. They're too closely supervised. All Neffy is gonna do is get us there. After that, we're on our own."  
  
"What about your parents?" David smiled sardonically.  
  
"They're out of town for the weekend, and Thad is planning a Rave. I know he's planning to throw me in the pool house. I live there most of the time anyways. All my valuable stuff is there." He pulled out a key on a chain from under his shirt. "I'm the only one with a key. He'll use the guest house for his harem of girlfriends anyway" He tucked the key back into his shirt. "Besides, it's bigger than the guest house."  
  
"You live in the poolhouse?" David shrugged  
  
"I don't mind. Thad plays his heavy metal at ear-blasting volume anyway. Out in the poolhouse, it's nice and quiet. When I realized what Thad was up to, Mina and I moved my computer, coin collection, and other valuable stuff. Then I swiped the poolhouse keys, buried one, and I wear the other one around my neck. I even changed the code on the security system."  
  
"But what if Thad tries to break in?" David steepled his fingers.  
  
"Thad and I have a. . .understanding. I keep my mouth shut about his raves, and he stays out of the poolhouse. Which is a good thing. Because there's evidence that will arrive on Dad's desk that has pictures from Thad's Raves. I also took a few precautions. Because there's enough notes and junk in there that can be put together and reveal the identity of the scouts."  
  
Nephrite cleared his throat and raised an eyebrow at David. David nodded, and with a lurch (and a brief warp of the scenery, overlaid with the brief hallucination of a iguana, and Lita blushing bright red at something she saw, but later absolutely refused to discuss, but occasionally caused her to mutter, "They have rings for THAT!?! And I thought navel rings were as far down as you could go!"), the loft vanished to be replaced by an expanse of grass. On the horizon, they could see the fence which surrounded the base, beyond that, the shuttle itself.  
  
"It's good thing tomorrow is Sunday and neither of us has school." Lita shaded her eyes and squinted to see the shuttle better.  
  
"Ya know, from here it doesn't look that big."  
  
"Distance does wonderful things to human eyesight" David said dryly. "Speaking of which. . . ." He dug a cell phone out of his bag and dialed a number.  
-------------------------------- Mina picked up the phone with one hand and continued brushing Serena's hair with the other.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Hi ya sweet lips!"  
  
"David?" Mina cradled the handset between her shoulder and cheek. "how are you?"  
  
"Absolutely smashing! Lita and I are Florida."  
  
"Florida? What the hell are you doing there?"  
  
"The Black Lady and three of her cronies have invaded the crew. Darien just can't get away, Neffy, has an appointment he can't ditch and the Sisters have to get ready for the tax man.  
  
"So it's just you two"  
  
"Duh huh." Quipped David in his best hillbilly accent. "Anyhoo, put Amy on would you?" Mina handed the receiver to Amy.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Ames. Listen up. I need to know the exact location of the abort button on the shuttle."  
  
"It would be center on the dashboard somewhere, probably underneath a clear plastic case or lid. It has to be pushed before ignition."  
  
"Cool. Thanks. Put Mina back on."  
  
"David?"  
  
"No, the Loch Ness monster. I gotta scoot luv. Love you."  
  
"Ditto." The phone clicked. Mina replaced the phone. Serena twisted around to look at her.  
  
"Mina? What was that all about?" Raye crossed the room.  
  
"Yes. What did he want to know about the abort button for?" Mina licked her lips before replying.  
  
"Lita and David are in Florida. The Black Lady and three of her cronies are on the shuttle crew. They're going to try and stop them."  
-------------------------------- Jupiter stood on the edge of the control tower roof. Two miles away, the shuttle waited by the assembly building. The sun was just peeking over the horizon. In 24 hours, the shuttle would launch.  
  
According to David, in that cargo bay was the world's only cold fusion reactor. It had a date with the engineering module of United. The nations of the world had put aside their differences to build the first fully- functional Space Platform in preparation for the Mars Mission. Japan supplied the tech, Russia supplied the construction crew and their massive boosters. Canada and the rest supplied station crew. America was supplying it's fleet of reusable craft. It's shuttles. Which was why they were here in Florida.  
  
"Man, when you think about all the effort we're putting into this, it really boggles the mind." Crystal Knight picked up her up around the waist and with a boost from his rocket pack, they landed on the mobile gantry that would carry the shuttle all the way to the launch site. "Maybe, just maybe, this could end all the wars and stuff."  
  
"Jupiter, I couldn't garuntee that."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Human nature."  
  
"Oh. So what's the plan?"  
  
"Get into the prep rooms for the astronauts, remove the Negascum, and be out before you can say Jack Rabbit."  
  
"They're gonna resist."  
  
"If we can get them out to the swamps, it won't matter."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"The swamps are ripe with strange magic. Wild and untamed. Neffy and I tangled with a Bayou Voodoo Queen while trying to capture Demando. We lost him and had to extract ourselves from the swamp." He paused. "I will never look at an alligator the same way again."  
  
"So you're planning to dump them in the heart of the swamps?"  
  
"Yep. Let the wild magic deal with them. I know one old lady that would love to make Negaverse Stew."  
  
"David? Are you still in control?"  
  
"Of Course. Why?"  
  
"That last part sounded kind of, well, crazy." Lita found herself inching away from the Knight. If David ever lost control of the rage and anger that was the real Crystal Knight, a few feet wouldn't save her.  
  
"Sorry. I don't think it's possible to kill them by Magic."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Magic is a form of energy. When Nephrite died, it was from the vines through his shoulder. Not the blasts that they hurled at him."  
  
"But Serena's crescent Moon Wand..."  
  
"I don't know Jupiter, I honestly don't know. Perhaps it's the type of energy used."  
  
"You eggheads are all alike."  
  
"I won't dignify that with a response. However, Amy and I have been trying to figure out a way to Artificially re-create the energy that the wand uses."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"In case Sailor Moon ever becomes........incapacitated." The visor glowed red briefly.  
-------------------------------- Jupiter bounded from building to building. As a Sailor Scout, her energy and endurance were increased. She also had a high level of resistance to injury and heightened agility. All were useful when making leaps sometimes as much as twenty feet. All the scouts had those abilities, in addition to their own powers.  
  
She pondered David and Mina. Normally she wasn't given to introspection but she had the entire width of the base to cover and her mind was wandering.  
  
David was a bigger mystery than Mina. His uncanny ability to plan bugged her. Where did he come from? Wales obviously, she knew that much. But he had always been rather closemouthed about his past. Witness protection? Now that was a thought. Actually it was too good a thought. Too close to the truth really. Could the Jones family be from Witness Protection? That made sense, in a twisted way. Except both Mina and David had made references to a guy named Conrad. From the looks on their faces when they talked about him, she wasn't sure she ever wanted to meet this guy.  
  
Then there was Mina. She had been after the Negaverse longer than any of the scouts except maybe Pluto. Why was she the first Scout when Serena was the Chosen One? Oy. She decided to leave it to the others, and give Artemis a going over. He had to have answers. He had too. There was too much going on here. Why had Venus waited until She, Mercury, Mars and Sailor Moon gotten together before showing up? Finally finding them didn't wash. After finding them, She had no trouble getting to the fight. Artemis was handing Luna assignments well before Mars had joined so he had to know where they were headed, he could have sent Mina there. Something just didn't add up.  
  
Jupiter landed on a truck that was headed in the right direction. Mina and David were mysteries. Jupiter hated mysteries.  
  
As the truck turned down an alleyway, Jupiter leapt upwards onto an office and caught a Van headed for the shuttle itself. First things first. Stop the Black Lady and her cronies. Then, deal with David.  
  
She leapt off the truck and bounded back on to the rooftops. David and other mysteries would have to wait. She had to get into position.  
-------------------------------- The Knight crouched in the shadow of the launch gantry. Something had pulled him here. A force. The Imperium crystal was answering a call too powerful too ignore. He had to know.  
  
"Curiosity killed the cat." His mom's voice washed through his head.  
  
"Meow." He chuckled softly and leapt up the side of the Gantry. Whatever it was, it was calling the Imperium Crystal from somewhere on the gantry.  
  
The grubby man in mechanic's coveralls watched the Knight. In a flash, the Knight was fifty feet up the Gantry.  
  
"You were correct mistress. He is here."  
  
"Of course Martin, don't you know I'm always right. You do know that, don't you?"  
  
"Yes mistress. Of course Mistress." The pink-haired woman patted the mechanic on his head.  
  
"I know you do. Now go to your job." The mechanic scurried away. The woman smiled. A single night of passion and he was hers. Heart and soul. She hadn't realized the full. . .potential of a frayed, scratchy rope until then. He had proven that humans did have potential if certain base instincts were given free reign. A shame he had to die. When it came to the other uses of a table knife, Martin had been rather inventive. And what he could do with that candle . . .  
  
With a flicker, she vanished.  
-------------------------------- Jupiter arrived at the gantry and made her way up the side of the shuttle. After all the problems with Tomoe, she had thought their problems were over. When the others from the Moon Kingdom appeared she had thought them easy. But they hadn't. Then Pluto had yanked them to Crystal Tokyo where they had faced those duplicates, and Amy had nearly died. They all had scars from that. Mercury's right eye had trouble focusing and her speech slurred slightly if she wasn't careful. Venus had a limp. Mars came out smelling like a rose. All she had was a web-shaped scar above her left eye. Jupiter paused on a gantry arm to rub her shoulder. Her arm had been yanked from it's socket. She had trouble throwing punches because the shoulder bones rubbed against each other. After a while, the soreness became unbearable. She took 30 seconds for a breather. Time was of the essence. She resumed bounding up the side of the shuttle.  
  
The Knight paused at the cargo bay. The call was coming from within. He searched the hull. Finally he found the exterior access. A small keypad. So what was the code? How many digits? On a hunch he punched in the date of the first manned space flight. The massive doors slid open. The call was stronger, it was coming from the reactor. No, not the reactor, between it and the side of the bay. A few minutes searching bought him a locket. A single leap put him back outside the shuttle. A few minutes work got him the code that closed the cargo doors. Then he took off to join Jupiter.  
-------------------------------- Jupiter stood at the top of the launch gantry. She could see for miles from up here. The wind blew through her hair. She could smell the salt air in the wind. Without a sound, the Knight arrived next to her.  
  
"Anything?"  
  
"Nope, nothing. Except this." Jupiter turned and studied the locket that the Knight held in one hand.  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"I'm not sure. But it called the Imperium Crystal. So it's important." Jupiter put one hand out.  
  
"I-I have to touch it." Her hand snapped out and closed around the locket itself. Instantly, energy arced out from the locket and up her arm. She glowed green for a moment, then it vanished.  
  
She was now wearing armor. It was a metallic version of her usual outfit, except that all the bows and stuff were gone. Where she used to have bare skin, it was now covered in green metal.  
  
She fumbled with the catches to the helmet. With a slight sucking sound, the helmet came off. She stared at it.  
  
"If there is one, then there must be others." She looked up at the Knight.  
  
"What makes you so sure?"  
  
"A hunch, and a memory." Jupiter looked at him incredulously. Unlike the other scouts, David had no memories of the moon, no dreams. Luna couldn't figure out if she had seen him before. Then again, Luna had said that the Crystal Knight had been just a legend for the people of the Moon.  
  
"A memory?" The Knight didn't answer. His attention was riveted on the prep building at the other end of the launch site. Jupiter followed his gaze. A van with the NASA logo on it was pulling in. Techs ran up with a plastic tunnel, used to keep germs out. From where she stood, she couldn't see the astronauts as they got out, but one of them had pinkish hair.  
  
In the Prep building the astronauts were laughing and joking. Except for Renee, "The american astronaut with cotton candy for hair." At least that's what they called her in the papers. Her real name was Rini, and she had the power to flatten the entire Cape Canaveral Complex. Even now she could feel the Negaforce twisting within her, begging to be used. She squashed it down. There were more important things to worry about. She looked out the window at the launch pad. Two glints shined from the top of the gantry. Even from here, she knew what they were. Sailor Jupiter, and that thrice- cursed Crystal Knight. There was something different about Jupiter. Something powerful. The lockets! They had found one of the lockets! With one activated she could feel the others. Except for the one belonging to Moon. It was silent.  
  
She made her way to a chair and sat down. She stretched her senses out. She could feel the strange magic of the bayou, the ancient power of the druids in England, the wily and tricky magic of Ireland, the softer, yet rugged, magic of Scotland, the coiled power of the Ninja in Japan, and the mind- magic of the aborigines in Australia. The powers flowed and coalesced at various points. Ayer's Rock, Stonhedge, San Francisco, L.A., The Pacific Northwest, New York, the north and south poles, and. . .from two points in Tokyo and. . .interesting, another place in northern Japan . . .She pushed past it all, seeking the power of the moon, her moon, from her universe. There, the thread that united the lockets. Dad had been stupid to bring them here. But he was dead now, and there was no point in worrying about it.  
  
She ran her mental fingers through the thread following it to each locket. There. Jupiter, out on the gantry, and as she sensed it, her link to it through it's origin in her world snapped. She cursed softly, the armor must have finished fusing to the locket from this world. Well, there was always the other ones . . . Mercury, buried in the artic wastes. Mars, a volcano in the Pacific Ring of Fire. Venus, buried in England somewhere near the first Stonhedge. Uranus and Neptune were both in the same place, buried at the foot of a tree in a L.A. cemetery. Saturn was somewhere on the grounds of the Vietnam memorial. Pluto was in Big Ben somewhere, close to the gears, and all seven were slowly fusing with their counterparts. But Moon's was silent, the thread that connected it to Mercury was snapped. That meant the locket was disguised and in use.  
  
She smiled. After they had the reactor, she would personally hunt down each locket and destroy it. Whoever had the moon locket was in for a nasty surprise.  
-------------------------------- Jupiter looked down and swallowed, the astronauts were right below them, entering the shuttle. The Black Lady passed beneath them. Jupiter kept herself as still as she could, calling upon all her martial Arts training, to keep herself calm, still, and silent.  
  
Beside her, the Knight Crouched with an inhuman stillness. It still amazed her how reptilian he could be at times. There were still powers to the crystal that were being discovered. The last of the astronauts entered and the door swung closed.  
  
The Knight's fingers closed around the beam, making a slight impression in the steel. Jupiter looked over at him.  
  
"They'll be launching soon. We have to stop them." The Knight nodded.  
  
"Tell me something I don't know." Lita rolled her eyes.  
  
"Great. Now tell me David. Just how do we stop a multi-ton steel plane that is about spew a sun out of it's ass?!  
  
"A Sun?"  
  
"Large Bonfire?"  
  
"Better."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"We Move." With that statement, the Knight leaped from his perch and bounded down the gantry and into the cargo bay. Jupiter followed, sliding right through the hole he had made. The Alarms finally noticed that there was a hole in the shuttle's skin and began screaming.  
  
Then that the Negaverse burst in, howling like demons. Jupiter glimpsed the terrified faces of the other 3 Astronauts before Rubius and Malachite slammed her against the reactor. She wasn't the brightest of the scouts but she knew better then to puncture the Reactor. Running on experience, she kicked Rubius in the crotch as he was the more dangerous of the two and then snapped Malachite's head with a right cross.  
  
Rubius jumped her, pinning one arm behind her. She cursed under her breath, "How the fuck did he recover so damn fast!" and focused on him, stomping his shin, which loosened his grip enough for her to pull her arm free which she jabbed into his ribs and Judo threw him into the shuttle wall. Dazed, he staggered, and she turned to deal with Malachite, who was already charging.  
-------------------------------- He stood there in the crowd, near to the outer edges. Something was wrong. He started edge away, to find somewhere where he could make the change. She laid a hand on his arm, demanding to know where he was going. The lie flowed from his lips and he vanished into the crowd before she could reply.  
-------------------------------- The Knight was wrestling two ladies. On any other occasion, he would be enjoying this, but these two were trying to kill him, which put a damper on things.  
-------------------------------- Jupiter slammed Rubius in the nose, attempting to drive it into his brain. Malachite hissed and lunged. She ducked, using Rubius as a shield, even so, the impact drove them back smashing her against the reactor. She needed a weapon. Before her eyes a display appeared. Charge 000 The numbers began to climb. She didn't know what the hell was going on, but it was something. She could hear The Knight swearing vehemently. She elbowed Rubius in the ear and Slammed Malachite in the throat with her arm.  
  
The Knight's hands glowed and an energy blast blew out the side of the shuttle causing more alarms to go off. It also caused the shuttle to lurch dangerously. Lita almost lost her balance. She swore in three different languages at the same time. Then they all fell out of the hole, as she plummeted, something flashed past her, running up the side of the shuttle. The Knight caught her and set her down.  
  
"You okay?"  
  
"Yeah. Did you see who was running up the side of the shuttle?"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
At that moment, a third person landed in their midst. Lita gaped. It was a sight to behold. The creature stood eight feet tall. Golden chest armor was sculpted around massive chest and upper arm muscles. Black leather fingerless gloves fitted around Five-fingered hands. Green pants of some material wrapped around muscular legs. It wore no shoes....no, it was wearing sandals of some kind. What skin she could see was golden brown, and looked scaly. It's silver hair was tied into dreadlocks, and the helmet was some kind of futuristic, flattened, full faced gas mask. It had an Astronaut under each arm and a third hanging on it's neck. It set them all down and they ran for it.  
  
Rubius snarled and gave the newcomer both barrels. The creature didn't even flinch. Jupiter blinked and the creature had moved the distance between it and Rubius and Rubius was flat on his back, both hands covering his face.  
  
Oh Bhudda, how fast was this thing? The Knight was less astonished.  
  
"And you are......."  
  
"I am Hunter." It's voice was a raspy whisper. Lita's eyes narrowed as the name sparked a childhood memory.  
  
"Hunter? Then you are real."  
  
"You have heard of me then."  
  
"Who?" The Knight was staring at her and none of them noticed The Negaverse listening intently.  
  
"According to that my Sensai told me, the Hunter is the Champion of the Red Dragon Ninja clan. No Mortal can stand against him in combat. As the story goes," She paused to run the story through and come up with the modern terms. "700 years ago an Alien ship crashed into Feudal Japan. A Samurai warrior witnessed the landing and watched the alien stagger out. Thinking it a demon, the Samurai killed it in cold blood. As the body lay bleeding on the ground, his comrades came running, as did the Clan Shaman. The Samurai by now had realized his mistake, and was prepared to commit Seppuku to regain his honor. For he had killed being that had been unable to defend itself.  
  
The Shaman had other ideas. He cursed the Samurai, his children and his children's children."  
  
"What was the curse?" The Knight by now was very interested.  
  
"To assume the Alien's form." The Hunter stepped closer to them. "300 years ago, one of the Hunters sought out a powerful Sorcerer, hoping to free himself from the curse. He failed. The Sorcerer did manage to alter the curse allowing the Hunter resume his human form. Since then The Hunter has continued to serve the interests of the Red Dragon Ninja Clan." The Knight absently made a note to work out the physics of this.  
  
The Black Lady got to her feet. "MARTIN!" She screamed and a Mechanic, his hair and thick mustache everywhere came out of the crowd.  
  
"Yes Mistress?" The Black Lady smiled and patted his head.  
  
"Kill them."  
  
"Yes Mistress." Martin bulged everywhere then his clothes seem to explode as Martin tripled in size. Jupiter took a step back.  
  
"He's a Freakin werewolf!" The Hunter lunged forward.  
  
"I'll take him! You take the others!" As Hunter and Martin began to trade punches, Jupiter tackled the Black Lady. The Knight whipped out his spear and jammed Bertie in the eye, yanking it out and delivering a snap kick right into Rubius's face. Malachite started to charge but was yanked back by Nephrite.  
  
"Going somewhere?" Asked Nephrite, Sword at the ready. Malachite drew his own blade. "Only for your throat traitor!"  
  
Jupiter's hands crackled with electricity and The Black Lady screamed and convulsed as thousands of volts invaded her. So that's how it works. Bitchin.  
  
Jupiter concentrated and delivered another electric shock. This was fun! The Black Lady smiled.  
  
"I can Deliver electric bolts too Sailor Bitch!" Her hands crackled with energy and every muscle in Jupiter's body contracted at once. But the pain was minimal. Then she noticed that the power bar had reduced to nearly half. Right, she had to watch it, and the armor had it's limits.....and so does the person wearing it....maybe they were connected. She would have to ask Amy. She flipped to her feet. That would be if they survived. The Lady came in swinging with a shotokhan style low punch. Jupiter knocked it aside with a Low block of her own and Brought up her forearm intending to slam it into her throat. That's when it sprouted spikes and the Lady ran right into them. Reflexively, Jupiter stepped back and stared as the green blood bubbled out of the Lady's mouth as she collapsed. She felt very queasy then the world went topsy turvy as Bertie tackled her and started tearing at her. For her part, the gaping green gore-seeping crater where Bertie's eye had been fascinated her. Focus girl! she snapped at herself and cracked Bertie under the jaw.  
  
The Knight's judgment was beginning to fade from an constantly building wave of psychotic bloodlust. He was fighting it as best he could, but he was losing. Then all judgment faded as Rubius gave him both barrels. The world went red and David found himself back on the Volcanic hellhole. SHIT!  
  
Jupiter and the Hunter found themselves back to back when the Knight let out bestial snarl and started tearing at Rubius.  
  
"I assume from the way you tense that that snarl is not a good thing."  
  
"No, it means he's gone psycho and will attack anything not Moon Kingdom."  
  
"In that case I believe me and my dancing partner shall change to something more down-tempo." Hunter grabbed Martin and dragged him behind the launch pad. Then a horrible metallic shriek ripped the air and the shuttle tilted dangerously.  
  
Her brain leaped into high gear. A plan leapt into her head. She didn't stop to think it through or question where it came from. She acted.  
  
"Nephrite! Teleport the shuttle off the boosters!" To his credit, Nephrite disengaged and did as she said. "Now! Launch the boosters and the external tank! Get them into space! Green energy crackled from Nephrite's hands and surrounded the external tank and boosters. With a thunderous roar, they launched into the air. They didn't quite make it into space and curved back down towards the ocean. The explosion sent a huge Tsunami towards them. Nephrite sent a huge wall of energy forth and the wave broke against it. Jupiter let out a sigh of relief as the energy wall fell. Luckily, the Coast Gaurd had cleared out the sea-going watchers when the fight had started. and the Tsunami hadn't reached shore. The she was slammed to the ground as Bertie leapt on her back. Enough was enough! Jupiter whipped around and boxed Bertie on the side of the head. She tumbled to the floor. That's when the Knight leapt onto Malachite. The wet sounds of ripping flesh reached her ears. Her stomach twisted. Oh Bhudda, she was going to barf. Then everyone vanished. Slowly, the Knight seemed to grow saner.  
  
"I did it again....didn't I?" Jupiter nodded.  
  
"Yeah, but under the circumstances, I don't think it matters." Hunter stepped up to them.  
  
"Everyone okay?"  
  
"No." Jupiter tore off her helmet and heaved into a convenient bucket. "Now, I'm okay." A Nervous NASA official handed her a canteen. She drank gratefully, swished the water around in her mouth and spit. Then she took a look around at the carnage that had been wrought and let out a low whistle of astonishment. "Daaaaaammmm" Nephrite materialized next to them and nodded his agreement.  
  
"Most destructive, but the reactor is safe. I must get back, I will return at 5PM Japan time." He vanished. Hunter nodded.  
  
"I too must go." Then he was gone, bounding over the buildings. Jupiter looked at the Knight.  
  
"I think we'd better go." She said quietly as she put her helmet back on.  
  
"Agreed." He scooped her up and they flew away.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Somewhere Else........  
  
Rini, known to her enemies as The Black Lady, examined her throat in the mirror. The wound was almost healed and there would be no scar. The others had similarly healed their wounds. Martin had returned with them and seemed much happier in his new form. She walked to the window and looked out over what she knew as Charwar. This was this universe's version of Earth....and it was dying. Her father had told her the tale. Of how the inhabitants of Charwar mastered the hidden powers of the brain quickly and exploded forward technologically at an incredible rate.  
  
Now Charwar was dying, the sun was dying and the inhabitants needed new sources of Energy.  
  
So they turned to the other dimensions, found Earth, and the Senshi. It had been so easy to defeat them. Charwar had gone forth and raped that Earth. They were still doing it.  
  
Then Seekay had appeared.  
  
At first they thought he was just been a wanderer from the other Charwar. Then he had quietly convinced Father that he should rule. Father had killed Beryl. Then she had killed Father, not realizing that her father had set Seekay up as Regent. Seekay had been quick to seize power. He consolidated his power very quickly and killed any who spoke out against him. Seekay was very fond of killing. He had a wall in his personal quarters. Mounted on it were the heads of those who opposed him. He talked to them.  
  
Now she served him, because she knew what would happen to her if she failed him. He had proof of what would happen.  
  
So she served him, but she didn't have to like it.  
  
An Aide came up to her and handed her a piece of paper. Ah, the results of the scanners she had left at Cape Canaveral for the purpose of recording the results on the crowd when the planned sabotage of the reactor went off. But they had served a another purpose. Albeit an unintentional one. They had scanned the Armor of Jupiter, The Knight, and that Hunter.  
  
Now what did they discover? Oh my, that was interesting. She scanned the graphs again, just to be sure.  
  
Oh yes, that was interesting.  
  
That was very interesting.  
-------------------------------- Epilogue  
  
Lita bit into the Cheeseburger.  
  
"Oh, this is good."  
  
"Yeah." David bit into his own meal with gusto. "Good old Artery-hardening American food." Lita shoved a few more French fries into her mouth. This was great. Bad as Hell for her, but good nonetheless. She glanced around and two more people entered. Two teenagers. One was a guy, short, a bit thick around the middle, but bright, intelligent eyes. The other was a girl, extremely attractive. His face held a hint of Asian blood, while she was all anglo-saxon.  
  
"Come on Max, you disappeared and missed all the craziness. It was battle. I saw a Senshi!" The girl really seemed earnest.  
  
"The Senshi are an Urban Legend Janet." The guy dug some money out of his pocket. "There is no proof that they exist. All you have is some Newspaper clippings from your cousins about some sightings." He looked at the Cashier. "Two number fours."  
  
"Then how do you explain monsters, the destruction of the top levels of Tokyo's Starlight Tower, and the wreckage of an Apartment building?"  
  
"Mass Hallucination and Terrorists."  
  
"Terrorists? It was the Sailor Senshi! You saw that News footage of Sailor Moon."  
  
"A Stunt by some movie company."  
  
"I don't understand you Maxwell," He flinched. "You seem perfectly willing to believe in the Hunter," she continued, "but not the Senshi. Why?"  
  
"It's not that I don't believe in them, I just don't really accept your explanation for their existence. Aliens fighting extradimesional superpowered terrorists who are after our energy? No. I love you dearly, but that answer belongs in an Anime series, not real life."  
  
Lita and David hid smiles behind their cheeseburgers. She made a frustrated sound and stalked off to the bathrooms. The guy let his gaze drift around the room and for an instant his eyes locked with her and David's, then moved on. The Cashier handed him the tray of food and he made his way to a table. As he passed by them, he nodded to each of them. Lita winked back and he smiled.  
  
"You look better out of that armor." He said in a low voice. Lita just smiled.  
  
"Thank you."  
--------------------------------  
  
"Contact with the Immortal One has been made."  
  
"Continue Monitoring." 


	3. Crystal Dusk

Previously, On the Crystal Knight Chronicles:  
  
When a alternate Negaverse, one that had invaded an Earth not our own and conquered it, burst into the Crystal Tokyo of our Universe, it forced the Crystal Tokyo Senshi to summon help. Their past selves arrived, along with Molly and Mina's boyfriend and the Senshi of the future were sent back in time.  
  
A fierce battle ensued, culminating in the addition of one more team member. David, Mina's boyfriend. Who used the mysterious power of the Moon Crystal to become the Crystal Knight, the champion of the Moon Kingdom.  
  
Also acquired during the battle was another Imperium Silver crystal which has given the Crystal Knight the powers of the other Senshi.  
  
Molly was reunited with a Nephrite who had lost another Molly. He switched sides to save her life.  
  
But the battle also induced near fatal Injuries to Mercury, forcing the Senshi to return to their time to seek Medical help. For if the Mercury of the past died in the future. The Time Line would be destroyed. But the Alternate Negaverse now has a gateway into our world and the conquest and Rape of one Earth has made them meaner, and fiercer.  
  
Some months passed and then Lita and David traveled to Cape Canaveral, Florida to Stop the Negaverse from hijacking the World's only Cold Fusion Reactor. They succeeded with help from an Cursed being known only as Hunter, and Nephrite.  
  
Lita also discovered a Locket. Which endowed her with a protective suit of armor. Upon returning to Japan, Amy's computer discovered a link from Lita's Locket, leading to other lockets...........  
  
And the Senshi set out to find them.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
The Artic wastes.  
  
The two figures moved through the slush. Both were dressed in heavy clothes and moved slowly, as though they were looking for something. Finally, one stopped, bent down and picked something out from under the snow. There was a blue flash of light and an armored figure stood there. The figure nodded to it's companion, and both vanished.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
A volcano somewhere in the Pacific Ring of Fire.  
  
The girl bounded down up the side of the volcano. She was dressed in a sleeveless blouse, a red short skirt and red high heels. She ducked as some lava spat out then reached up and caught something. There was a flash and an armored figure stood there. Turning, it bounded back down the hill until it reached it's companion. Then both vanished.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Stonhengege, England  
  
They looked like the other Tourists milling around. Two sisters and their father. The Blond one looked around, watching the people. The Black haired one simply watched, silent. The Brown-haired man followed a few steps behind them, his hands shoved casually in the pockets of his cream colored slacks. They followed the others and walked around the Attraction, before returning to the bottom of the hill. Here, they circled the hill, as though searching for something. Finally the blond dropped to one knee and scratched at the dirt, finally pulling up a locket on a chain. There was a flash, and an armored figure crouched where the blond had been. Then, all 3 vanished.  
--------------------------------  
  
The Vietnam Memorial  
  
The same 3 people who only seconds before had been in England, now walked the length of the Vietnam Memorial. The other two now followed the Black Haired girl. Her eyes were mournful and sad, and she gazed at each name as though she knew each person, and perhaps she did. Who could say? They finally reached the end. The Black Haired girl paused and then pointed at a name. The Blond, tears forming in her eyes, laid a single red rose at the base. Then she bowed her head in Prayer. Finally, she raised her head and nodded.  
  
The Black-Haired girl pressed her hand against the stone . . . into the stone . . . for several seconds, then drew her hand back, holding a locket. A flash, and an Armored figure stood there. The Man glanced at the name that had caused the Blond to cry as they vanished.  
  
Ross Anio  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Big Ben  
  
She looked like any other Tourist in the small group that walked along the catwalks inside the clock known as Big Ben. She slowly moved to the back. Then her hand snapped out, a flash, and the armored figure vanished.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
A Los Angeles Cemetery.  
  
The 3 girls walked among the headstones. One had green hair, the second, blond, the third, white, although she was quite young.  
  
They passed along the many graves, occasionally pausing every so often to admire one that was particularly artistic. The finally reached a tree. Here, the Blond and the Green haired one dropped to their knees and began frantically digging while the white haired one stood watch.  
  
A gaurd noticed the activity and began hurrying towards them. Just as the two found the lockets. The White haired girl stepped back blew the gaurd a kiss, put her arms around each armored figure and all 3 vanished.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
A Loft Apartment in Tokyo  
  
Lita Kino leaned back on the sofa, on the coffee table before her, 8 heart- shaped lockets lay, each a different color. 8 lockets, 9 Senshi. There was still one locket missing. Serena's.  
  
The Lockets would only work for the scout they were made for. When Grasped firmly and willed to activate, they enclosed the Scout in a Protective suit of Armor. The Armor boosted Strength, protected against all but the most serious injury, and boosted their firepower. The locket for Sailor Moon was missing. Unlike the other's, there was no trail to follow. Which made it a mystery. Lita hated Mysteries.  
  
There was also the question of where the lockets came from or why they were so compatible with their powers. Artimes and Luna had no memory of the Senshi ever having used Armor, but then again. They had only been Advisors. Serenity had many secrets she had never shared with them. The Armor could have been one of them. Amy looked up from her computer.  
  
"I'm done."  
  
"So what are they?"  
  
"David's theory is quite correct. The Lockets are fully compatible with our powers. Not only do they provide considerably more protection then our regular uniforms, they allow us to pump considerably more punch into our attacks. That, and they grant us the power of flight. I won't bore you with all the capabilities but we may consider them an addition to our Arsenal. With the Inhabitants of Negaverse 2, as David has dubbed them, evidently on the attack, and as they are considerably more violent then Negaverse 1."  
  
"Yeah, but we still can't rule out Negaverse 1 as a threat." Said Raye. David nodded.  
  
"We must also consider the possibility that the Negaverses have made an alliance."  
  
"What?" Raye stared hard at him. "How?"  
  
"We know they have inter-dimensional capability. I've consulted.....an expert and he tells me that there is a high probability that contact has been made." Mina groaned.  
  
"You didn't."  
  
"I had to. This is his area of expertise."  
  
"What did you tell him?"  
  
"I asked him what the chances were that two different universes, both with Inter-dimensional capability had of making contact with each other. He said somewhere in the neighborhood of sixty to seventy-five percent that they would."  
  
"Who are you guys talking about?" Lita was confused. Mina sighed softly.  
  
"Pray you never find out." She said. "Pray hard."  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Charwar....  
  
Rini's hands clenched into fists. The Steward cringed.  
  
"Please Mistress." He said, cringing. "I brought you the best in the cellar. It's not my fault that the wine was contaminated. Please Mistress, have mercy."  
  
"Mercy?" She laughed. "Martin." Martin lunged forward and turned the steward into bloody shreds. A bit of blood landed on her cheek. She wiped it off with her finger then licked the blood off. Mmmmm.  
  
"The wine wasn't actually contaminated." She said to the bloody remains of the corpse. "I was just bored." She took a sip. "I will be on the tower. When Sephulcus arrives, send him to my workshop."  
  
"Yes Mistress." Chorused the servants.  
  
Up on the tower she set the glass on a table put there for that purpose.  
  
Eons ago, Charwar had burned off it's asmotsphere, and drained the sun. Above her, the stars glowed brightly like jewels. Below her the towers and bridges of Neo-Sta rCharwa City stretched out towards the mountains. She looked back up to the stars. Then on the horizon, a ringed planet slowly rose into view. Theories abounded as to what it was. Some said it was the planet that Charwar orbited. Others claimed the reverse. Others worshipped it. Prayed to it. Rini cared nothing for theories. She dealt in facts.  
  
She knew what that ringed planet really was. The Alien Intelligence called Queen Metallia. Who even Seekay answered to. But the Queen had been silent for years.  
  
She would have figured Seekay had killed her too except she had been silent since Beryl's death. Now that was a thought. Could Beryl have been an Avatar of Metallia and her death could have caused a backwash that had blown whatever it was Metallia had for a mind? On the other hand, Father had killed Beryl on Seekay's advice, so however you looked at it, Seekay had killed the Queen.  
  
But was the queen really dead? That thought sent her to thinking about Lady Hotaru Saturn. She shook her head. She didn't need to think about her. She wasn't afraid of Saturn, even if that gaze of hers was unnerving.  
  
What was happening to her world?  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Tokyo, Serena's school.  
  
Lita pulled her Harley to a stop in the Parking lot. She was still thinking about the lockets and hers was a cold touch against her skin under her school uniform. The Senshi had been together until very late last night. Finally, they had decided on a training session on old abandoned farm North of the City. They had to start learning the armor. David and Serena would stay on the sides, using Amy's computer to correlate the Data.  
  
She was no techie. She would be the first to admit that she wasn't the brightest bulb in the socket, but even she knew enough to point out that the lockets were not Moon Kingdom manufacture. Her own memories of the Moon Kingdom suggested a technology based more on crystals and Plant fibers. The armor was high-tech, grade-A technology. Super-science. She sighed as she pulled off her helmet. Amy was "home in bed with the flu" She was going to link her hand computer to her Armor's on board computer and see if she could get anything out of the software. It was a tribute to Amy's curiosity and sense of duty that she would willingly miss a day of class.  
  
The day dragged on endlessly. Their friends noticed that all the Senshi seemed nervous and edgy. They tended to be snappish and withdrawn. Serena was actually awake all through class, running on Nervous energy. She couldn't think about school. Strangely enough, she got an A on her math test.  
  
At lunch time, Melvin and Molly were eating lunch together. Melvin, in one of his more perceptive moments, noticed that Molly seemed edgy and withdrawn.  
  
"Hey Molly, are you ok?" Melvin sounded concerned, though his face was well-hidden by his glasses.  
  
"It's nothing Melvin. I'm just worried about Maxsfield." Molly picked at her lunch with her fork. Boiled cabbage was not one of her favorite foods normally, and today she seemed even more disgusted with it.  
  
"Why should you be worried? The guy's rich, and probably has dozens of bodyguards." Melvin sounded annoyed. He was, actually. Since Maxsfield's return, Molly had been paying him less and less attention.  
  
Charwar  
  
Rini looked up from the remains of her latest lover. Completely ignoring her blood-spattered state of nudity, she walked over to the balcony doors and opened them, sinking gracefully to one knee in obedience to the being waiting outside her rooms.  
  
"I live to serve, my lord."  
  
Seekay's hood tilted forward slightly, and she could feel the chill of his gaze sweep her body.  
  
I see you have been up to your usual games. If you were a little more patient, you would be able to have your playmates around for a few more times before they become useless. Seekay's voice, oddly resonating, echoing, metallic and cold, chilled Rini to the bone, making her wonder, briefly, just what he looked like under that robe and hooded cloak. She said nothing, waiting for him to speak.  
  
I have a task for you.  
  
Seekay walked . . . no, drifted into the room, the eerie silence of his movement, plus the faint images of him that seemed to appear before and after him, making the hair on the back of her neck stand straight on end. Seekay seemed to gaze briefly at the bloody flesh upon her bed, taking note of the knives, leather restraints, the giant roll of duct tape, and three- foot trout. The hood turned back towards her where she knelt, watching him, the faint gleam of light where she assumed his eyes were directly focused on her.  
  
"Experimenting, my Lord."  
  
Of course. Rini nearly lost track of him in surprise, for once, his tone had actually almost had a rather dry, sarcastic tone to it.  
  
Put your toys away, I have a task for you. Seekay gestured towards the trout, and in that brief movement, Rini caught sight of some of what was under that robe, and the chill of light upon black metal was more than enough to satisfy that curiosity of hers.  
  
I am not going to ask why that object in particular, but is all the elaborate . . . equipment truly worth it?  
  
"One must be adventurous, my Lord."  
  
Garb yourself, and remove your toys. I wish for your full attention.  
  
Rini snapped her fingers, instantly removing her toys and what was left her playmate. A pity, really, she hadn't quite finished yet. She debated briefly about a bath and trying to put on a tease show for him again, but decided against it. She'd had bruises for almost a year after the last time she had done that. Not that it hadn't been enjoyable, but that was a bit rougher than she preferred to play, and she liked being the dominant one . . . And that all throughout that time, he had repeatedly said, "You are not her!", whatever that meant. That and having the lights off all the time bothered her, for some reason. . . . and it had felt so . . . familiar . . .  
  
In less than a second, she was garbed in the now-familiar uniform that covered her from neck to foot that he preferred her to wear in his presence. She walked over to the liquor cabinet, opening the door before turning to Seekay. He was now sitting in a chair on the other side of the room from where he had been standing. A shiver ran up her spine. She had not heard him move. At all.  
  
"Would you care for some refreshment, my Lord?"  
  
Yes.  
  
"As you wish, my Lord." She had quickly mixed the drinks and was soon sitting across from him, carefully avoiding looking at him directly. Each time her glance skittered across the room and back to him, the level of drink in his glass had gone further down. She had soon learned that watching his glass proved nothing, as it would only be drunk while she was not looking. And that being denied his food and drink made him . . . cranky.  
  
You must challenge the Crystal Knight. Rini stared at Seekay in shock, unable to believe what she had just heard.  
  
"M-my Lord!?"  
  
You heard me clearly enough. You must challenge the Crystal Knight in one-on-one combat. Before this night sees it's end .  
  
She looked into her glass, trying to think. It wasn't that she was afraid, it was that even unskilled as he was, he was still an opponent not to be underestimated.  
  
"But how will I draw him out of hiding? We have not the slightest idea who he really is! All we have is his first name." It was after the words left her mouth that Rini remembered that they had his face as well.  
  
Taunt him. Tell him you have Sailor Moon's locket . . . I will have the Senshi here as an additional lure.  
  
Rini wisely decided to not ask how he would do that. She looked up from her glass, only to notice he was not in his seat any longer before feeling his hands, if hands they were, grip the back of her chair, the wood splintering from the strength of his grip. Her body tensed, a tension she had felt often, and knew well. Indeed, she had felt it earlier, just before she had Sephulcus help her take care of it. She froze, not moving, staring directly at the wall across from her. Surprisingly, she felt him lower his head, the hood brushing against her hair as his face grew close to her ear. A silent moan tried to pass her lips, a slow heat beginning to build within her. Gods, he was so dangerous. She nearly jumped out of her skin when one of his hands wrapped itself around her chin and throat. She could just barely see the gleam of the chill black metal from the corners of her eyes, her breath beginning to come in short gasps as the contrast between the cool metal made her flesh heat even more.  
  
Know this: Win, and your rewards will know no measure. Lose, and you will wish that the suffering he would have inflicted on you as he tore you apart inch by inch had happened instead of your return to my hands. She gripped the chair arms, trying to keep herself from displaying any effect he was having on her. It didn't help that her uniform seemed incredibly tight and confining or that the temperature was soaring.  
  
Suddenly, both hand and hood were gone, and a faint click announced the opening of the balcony doors again.  
  
Oh, yes . . .one more thing. Attempt to enter my mind again, and the consequences will be.....grave. The balcony doors slammed closed, leaving her to writhe on the chair, moaning, as the heat within her exploded forth.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Earth, that Night.  
  
The door to what had once been a barn swung open and Jupiter stepped in silently. To her, the room was lit up nicely as the helmet's light amplification equipment did it's work. She began a search of the room, and never saw the Negaverse soldiers until they tackled her from behind.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
David groaned. He had come down with stomach flu in the middle of class and had to be sent home. At least Thad was on that school trip to Hong Kong along with mom and dad had to fly to Australia. So he was alone. Absently, he picked up some toast and took a bite. As he chewed, he wondered how the tests were going.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Jupiter woke up to immense pain. Opening her eyes, she saw that her arms were chained to the wall over her head. The room was dimly lit, beside her she saw Mars, Venus, Mercury, Uranus, Neptune, and Sailor Moon, who was tied up and dumped on the floor along with their helmets. Jupiter nudged the closest scout, who happened to be Mercury.  
  
"Pssst! Mercury!"  
  
"Wha?" Mercury slowly opened her eyes. "Ju-Jupiter?"  
  
"Yeah." Jupiter looked around, but her eyes were unable to penetrate the gloom. "Where are we?"  
  
"Dunno." Mercury's head sagged, and her eyes closed. Jupiter began scheming to take her mind off the pain in her arms.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
David set the phone down on the cradle and frowned. Something was wrong. No connection to Mina's pager and Amy's cell phone was the same. At that moment the TV came on, there was the Black Lady. She was wearing solid black armor.  
  
"People of Tokyo, Japan. I am the Black Lady. This is a message for the Crystal Knight." The Camera pulled back to show Sailor Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Neptune and Uranus. All were tied up and gagged. "I have your precious Senshi. I also know where Sailor Moon's Locket is. If you want them, come and Get them. I'll be at the docks, until first light.....Once I see the sun rise...." She laughed maniacally and the picture vanished.  
  
Gritting his teeth against the nausea, David reached for his pants. This might be a trick, but he couldn't take the chance. For Mina, he would go knock on the Gates of Hell itself. Then his eyes fell on his computer.  
  
One stop to make before the fight.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Jupiter watched the Black Lady pace. She was wearing armor that resembled the Senshi's own Armor, but it was solid black and had stiletto high heels. She carried a helmet under her arm and her hair was tied into a bun.  
  
"What do you really want?" Jupiter asked.  
  
"I want the Crystal Knight to be here, so I can kill him." The Black Lady set the helmet down on a crate, evidently tired of carrying it.  
  
"You haven't been able to beat him yet!" Venus piped up. "You've failed, blundered, screwed up, and completely buggered."  
  
Venus felt her neck pop as the Black Lady's metal shod hand connected with her cheek, snapping her head to the right. She tasted blood. Narrowing her eyes, she spat the blood into the Black Lady's face.  
  
"Go to hell." Venus snarled. "Go to hell with your head between your legs! It's about the only thing that hasn't been there!" The world exploded in stars and Venus blacked out.  
  
Rini smirked, watching the blood dribble down the Venus brat's face. As Mercury watched in disgusted horror, Rini leaned forwards, and oh so delicately, licked the blood from Venus's cheek. A look of dark pleasure crossed her face as she straightened and caught Mercury's look of horror and disgust from the corner of her eye. A sly smile crossed her face, and as she turned away, she purred, just loud enough for Mercury to hear, "It's such a pity it cools so fast outside the body, but then, a living vessel does hold a certain carnal touch . . ."  
  
--------------------------------  
  
David, his face grim, finished the last bit of tape on the box. The Fedex office would be open for the next three hours, so he had plenty of time to get there. Conrad would know what to do with the information, as David had a feeling that, this time, he wouldn't be coming back. David snorted, leaning back against the chair. He had that feeling every time, and sometimes thought it was the knight trying to get him killed.  
  
"Conrad, you S.O.B., you'd better appreciate all the trouble this is gonna get me in trouble for."  
  
He thought about that for a second.  
  
"Actually, can't be worse than anything you got me in trouble for when you were actually involved."  
  
--------------------------------  
  
The Black Lady eyed the watch built into the gauntlet of her armor. 9PM. Where was he?  
  
As though in answer, wood crunched behind her. Turning she saw the Crystal Knight standing on a pile of boxes in a fighting crouch. The Lance in his hand looked hungry for blood.  
  
"So you decided to come and face me." She said as her helmet flew into her hands. "How nice."  
  
"You didn't leave me much of a choice." He shot back. The Black Lady simply smirked as she put the helmet on. She held her hand out and small rod formed. Grabbing it in both hands she twisted it and it extended to it's full 6 foot length. Then she took her own fighting stance. Overhead, lighting flashed and the wind picked up. It was like the silence before a grand symphony.  
  
"Ready when you are." She said softly. The Knight's visor simply glowed.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
The Thunder, though it was coming from overhead, seemed distant to Mars' ears. Her attention was focused on the two armored forms before her. One was a massive suit of Armor. Red and black in color, crouched in a fighting position on a stack of wooden crates, the lance in his hands gleaming brightly as the lightning flashed. The other was decidedly female. Her Armor was black as the blackest night. She stood before the crates in a fighting stance, a fighting pike in her hands. Both were as still as statues, each waiting for the other to show some sign of wavering, some sign of weakness that this staring contest of theirs was coming to a close.  
  
Then it happened. Afterwards, Mars could never tell who moved first, but suddenly the Knight was crouched where the Black Lady had been only moments before, the blade of his lance buried in the side of a wooden crate. The Black Lady was standing on another pile of crates.  
  
The Knight pulled the lance free and stood up, turning to face her. They both stood, unmoving as statues, staring at each other across the gap of space of between them.  
  
Then the Black Lady was in the air, the pike whistling as it came down only to be stopped the Knight's Lance.  
  
Then they circled each other, pike and lance clanging together again and again.  
  
Raye moved her wrists experimentally. They bonds that held them tight were loosening. For a moment she couldn't figure it out until she remembered that the Negaverse's powers were psionic in nature...with the Black Lady having to concentrate on her fight, her attention on holding the bonds was wavering, if it wavered enough, they might be able to get free-of course, might was the operative word there.  
  
She started when she felt a quiet tapping on her forearm armor. It took her a moment to realize it was Morse Code. Jupiter had taught it to them when she joined up.  
  
This is Jupiter. Raye checked to see if anyone was watching them. But the Negaverse soldiers we're too busy watching the fight.  
  
Keep quiet. She cautioned, then got right to the point. The bonds are loosening.   
  
I know. I can almost get my hands loose. There was a pause. Any ideas on what to do once we're free?  
  
No. Raye thought for a minute. Ask Mercury. She's the tactician.  
  
On it. Time dragged by while Jupiter and Mercury held a short conversation. Finally, she felt the tapping again. Mercury's sure that the fight is moving away from us.  
  
The Knight is giving us a chance to make our escape then.  
  
Or The Black Lady is in retreat.  
  
Either way, now's our chance. Mars looked over at the soldiers who were moving further and further away to keep the two combatants in sight. Okay, here's the plan. As soon as they're on the far side of the dock, break the bonds. Then we make a mad dash for our helmets and take out the soldiers.  
  
What about the Black Lady? Jupiter asked  
  
Let the Knight worry about her for now. We have to get free and take out the soldiers.  
  
Gotcha. Mars sat back and waited for the bonds to loosen.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Mars dusted off her hands. It had almost been too easy.  
  
"That was way to easy" Said Uranus, giving voice to everyone's thoughts.  
  
"Yeah." Venus looked around. "So what do we do now?"  
  
--------------------------------  
  
The Knight dived out of the way, slamming into a fire hydrant. as an energy blast punched through the wall of the bank. He struggled to his feet only to be slammed through the wall by a small car.  
  
"No problem, folks." He said to the startled customers who had been lined up at the ATM. "No Problem whatsoever." With that he launched himself out the hole and tackled the Black Lady, pinning her.  
  
"Give this up." He said. "There's little point in a fight like this." She laughed, the laugh of one who could care less about her own skin.  
  
"The Master wished for me to challenge you." She said in a strange voice and slugged him, her fist sliding off his helmet. She snarled, her hands crackled and the Knight found himself flying through a parked car and into a restaurant in the process of being remodeled. Fortunately, nobody was there. But the impact did rupture a gas line and the entire structure exploded, raining debris across three blocks in every direction.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
The Senshi arrived on scene in time to get hit by the debris. Behind her, Venus could hear Uranus utter an oath as a two by four hit her.  
  
"So we're here. What now?" Everybody looked to Sailor Moon who just shrugged, she had no idea either. Venus finally spoke up.  
  
"We need a better viewpoint." She took off at a run for the nearest skyscraper. As she closed in her boot-jets began firing in bursts, causing her to move in short leaps, then as she was about to hit the wall, they roared to life, sending her eighty stories straight up. The others copied her, Jupiter pausing only to scoop up Sailor Moon before joining the others.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
The Black Lady stood there as the debris fell around her. Her eyes were glued strictly to the burning remains of the restaurant. Her hand tightened and loosened as she waited. The fight wasn't over, not by a long shot. Finally, a figure emerged from the flames, his armor red hot and covered in soot. Slowly, he dusted himself off.  
  
"Now, I'm annoyed." With that, he grabbed the car he had gone through and hurled it at her. She leaped out of the way and swung her pike at him. She would win.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
The Senshi bounded from rooftop to rooftop, following the fight as the combatants left behind a trail of debris, burning cars, and badly damaged buildings. Not to mention the bodies.  
  
"The cost of rebuilding after this over is already in the multi-millions!" Mercury noted as she richoted off an A/C unit.  
  
"Well gee," Snapped Uranus sarcastically, "Perhaps you're thinking we should pay for the damage we've caused!"  
  
"Hardly." Mercury retorted. "I'm just commenting on the damage and that perhaps, as civilians, we could assist in the cleanup."  
  
"Not a bad idea." said Mars "Of course, it would mean Serena actually does some work."  
  
"Traitor!"  
  
--------------------------------  
  
The Knight bounded down the street, a task made difficult because he had to move backwards to keep the Black Lady in view. Her blasts were causing most of the damage, and had already killed quite a few people. The next one knocked him off his feet and sent him sprawling, the lance flying out of his hand. The next thing he knew, the Black Lady was on his chest, clawing at his helmet and his face.  
  
This was not good. His hands crackled and she went flying. With a slight groan, the Knight got to his feet and retrieved his lance, noting that they were moving towards Cherry Hill.  
  
Then a car came sailing towards his head.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
The Black Lady sagged against the A/C unit, the pike across her legs. She hurt in places she didn't know it was possible to feel pain in. All in all, it was a memorable experience.  
  
She turned her hand, palm up. Energy from the emitters crackled across her fingers, causing her hand muscles to contract all at once and then release in sporadic intervals. She supposed it was some small comfort that the Knight was hurting as bad as she was. Too bad he wasn't hurting worse.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
The Knight flexed his own fingers. The armor was heavy, he was sore, and all he really wanted to do was sleep. He looked around. The roof was dotted with Heating and A/C units, Satellite dishes, and other machinery.  
  
"Rini!" He bellowed out. "I know you're on this roof Rini!"  
  
"Whaydda want?" Her voice came echoing back. It was impossible to tell where she was.  
  
"This fight is getting old Rini!"  
  
"So?"  
  
"So we need to end it. Now. One way or another."  
  
"What do you suggest?" She sounded as weary as he was.  
  
"I was hoping you had a suggestion!" A short laugh was heard.  
  
"That's a good one!"  
  
"There has to be a way we can end this." The Knight moved his head back and forth, trying to block out the echoes. Rini was also moving, he was sure about that.  
  
Finally, he leaned against an A/C unit taller then he was. Then he sensed a presence on the other side of the unit.  
  
"Hello Rini." Tensing in case she decided to try a sneak attack, but no attack came, and the knight relaxed without letting his gaurd down.  
  
"Hello." She sounded like she was hurting and he could hear the slight crackle of energy.  
  
"Quite a night huh?"  
  
"Yeah." There was a pause. "I'm not making nice with you, you know."  
  
"Do you even know what the word 'nice' means?"  
  
"I did,.....once." She almost sounded like a little girl again.  
  
"You must have had a strange childhood." The Knight said, hoping to get her talking. But her only response was a short, barking laugh.  
  
"Sorry metal man, I'm not letting you do that to me." Oh well, he had tried.  
  
"We're too evenly matched with you in that armor."  
  
"Yeah, I know. Get to the point."  
  
"Any chance I can talk you into a surrender?"  
  
"Nope."  
  
"I was afraid of that." He said dryly, eliciting what sounded like a strangled giggle from her.  
  
"Any chance you'll surrender to me?" He could almost her pleading with him to say yes in her voice.  
  
"No." He said quietly. "I can't do that. I don't surrender.....it's just not me."  
  
"Oh." Silence. "Then we're just going to have to kill each other."  
  
"I can't see any other option." Mentally, he prepared himself. "On the count of three then?"  
  
"Yeah." He could hear her take a deep breath. "One"  
  
"Two." Both tensed.  
  
"Three!" The knight swung around the unit to be slammed into by the Black Lady, the impact forced him backwards at high speed, slamming through anything in their paths.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
On the Street below, the Senshi skidded to a stop. Behind them, lay a trail of rubble and they could hear Ambulances, police, fire engines and helicopters arriving on scene. Their gaze drifted up in time to witness a pair of armored forms fly off the roof of a skyscraper, locked in Mortal combat. Even from where they were standing, the Senshi could see that their hands were locked together and crackling with energy.  
  
Survival instinct kicked in and catapulted the Senshi back as the two forms slammed into the street causing a minor earthquake that registered at 3.0 on the Richter scales that were still working and punching a decent sized crater in the pavement. The energy from their hands dissipating in a bright flash.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
The Knight groaned as he got to his feet. Readouts hovered in front of his eyes. Everything was haywire. He cringed as a power surge arced through the armor's superstructure. He desperately needed to change back. But he didn't dare. Not now. Then Venus and Jupiter were there, holding him up as the others approached the crater where the Black Lady still lay.  
  
"Is she dead?" Asked Mars, fire rippling around her hands.  
  
"Doubtful." The Knight made a noise that sounded like a cough. "If I survived, so did she. That armor made her my equal." Uranus nodded and stepped into the crater. Slowly, ready for anything, she reached for the helmet catches, and the helmet rolled away as she touched it.  
  
"What the?" She yelled.  
  
"It's empty!" Yelled Sailor Moon. Then Uranus was blown out of the crater. While Neptune ran to help her lover, the others turned to see the Black Lady hovering not five feet away. She now wore a black jumpsuit with matching gloves.  
  
"You teleported out of your armor just before impact." The Knight said as his field dampers managed to lock down the power surges and re-route around the damaged systems.  
  
"Very good." She said, her eyes wild. "NOW DIE!" She screamed as her hands glowed and erupted white-hot flame at them. The Senshi dodged and the flames missed them all, roaring past them to vanish over the crater.  
  
Then there was a crackling noise, a whoosh and the air over the crater cracked wide open, spilling forth a brilliant orange light.  
  
"What the hell is it?"  
  
"It's a dimensional rift!" Mercury yelled. "It must have been caused by the impact and then given fuel by that last blast! It's running out of steam though and should be gone in a few minutes!"  
  
The Knight looked from the rift to the Black Lady, then back again. He knew what he had to do. It was the only option. With that, he grabbed the Black Lady and threw her into the rift. Then he made ready to follow.  
  
Venus grabbed his arm. "What do you think you're doing?" It hurt him, but he shook her off.  
  
"You heard Mercury, the rift will seal itself soon. If she manages to make her way back before it does, we're toast. I love you Mina." With that, he leapt into the rift. Seconds ticked by and then they heard a terrified scream and a loud snap.  
  
"That was David's voice!" Mina screamed and leapt after him, but the rift had already closed and she landed on the Black Lady's armor. Then the only sound besides sirens was her scream of pain.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Somewhere, somewhen else......  
  
Rini shrugged back into her jacket, but left it unbuttoned. Seekay was going to be furious with her. Seekay....she paused as everything fell into place and she began to laugh. So that's who he was. She was still laughing when Seekay's hand wrapped around her neck and brutally snapped it.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Earth, the next morning......  
  
The Wheelchair plummeted from the top of the cliff to crash onto the rocks and then into the sea. Raye watched it fall then turned back to where Amy was making a call to the police on her cell phone. Wordlessly she handed it to Raye who steeled herself. She heard it ring twice before it picked up.  
  
"Tokyo 15th precinct. Sargent Li speaking."  
  
"I need help, a friend of mine just fell off a cliff!" A few more minutes of panicked chatter ensued before Raye hung up. That had to have been the best bit of acting she had done in her life. Now all they had to do was keep the cover story straight. She was not looking forward to lying to David's family. None of them were.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
One week later......  
  
Mina stormed into her room, slamming the door behind her, narrowly missing Artemis. For a moment she stared at herself in the mirror, she was still dressed in black from David's funeral.  
  
For a moment she stood there, then suddenly, she whirled around, ripping off her locket and hurling it at the wall, the transformation pen and communicator followed. Then she turned her face to the sky.  
  
"Why?!" She screamed. "Why did you have to take him?!" Tears began streaming down her cheeks. "Well you know what? I reject you! I don't believe in you anymore! I never will again!" Then she stared out the window at the moon, visible in the afternoon sky. "The same for you Serenity! I don't care anymore! Venus is dead! You hear me? DEAD!" With that, her shoulders slumped and she collapsed in a ball on the floor, crying with tears that no longer came. Silently, Artemis collected locket, pen and communicator and placed them into the folds of the blanket that made up his bed. Then he went to her and began purring, trying to comfort her.  
  
Three more days passed. The others had begun to get worried. Mina had not returned any of their calls, and Luna had heard squat from Artemis. It was for that reason that Serena, Amy, Lita and Raye put together a picnic basket and headed over to Mina's to administer the best remedy for a broken heart; ice cream and girl talk.  
  
Mina's mother answered the door. "Hello girls, Mina's up in her room." She said cheerfully, but Raye noticed that she had dark circles under her eyes and worry was etched across her face.  
  
The four girls made their way down the hallway and stopped at Mina's room, noting it had been covered in black construction paper. That set off danger signals in Raye's head. Serena reached out and rattled the door. It refused to budge. Lita narrowed her eyes, then spun and lashed out with a powerful side thrust kick, breaking the lock and slamming the door open. Artemis came racing out, panting and gagging. A stench reached their nostrils.  
  
Lita entered first. "Blimey!" She gasped, using an expression that David had often used. The others crowded in and stopped cold. The room, once bright and cheery had been redecorated in black. The sole light in the room came from a red light bulb, creating an appearance of the room being filled with blood. Mina was on her knees in front of her dresser, the top decorated with a shrine to David. Mina was a total mess, it was obvious she hadn't bathed or changed her clothes since the funeral. From the stench, the girls weren't sure she had left to use the bathroom all that frequently either.  
  
"Dear God!" Amy choked out. Mina looked at them, then collapsed. Amy raced to her while Serena ran to find Mina's mom to call an ambulance.  
  
The Paramedics arrived within minutes, took one look and hauled Mina out as fast as they could. The cops arrived seconds later, took one look and slapped down a Board of Health advisory on the place.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
Three weeks later.......  
  
Mina awoke to find herself in a bed she didn't recognize. It was a hospital. Why would she be in a hospital? Then the three days after the funeral came back to her. She groaned, eliciting a puzzled "wha?" from across the room. Mina sat up to see Raye curled up on a hospital chair.  
  
"Raye?"  
  
"Mina! You're awake!" Raye quickly crossed the room and gave Mina a hug before running to the door and calling for the doctor. Mina lay back and endured a battery of pokes and prods by doctors.  
  
Then the rest of the Senshi came in followed by her family. More hugs ensued until the nurse finally ordered everyone out.  
  
Another week passed and Mina was finally allowed to go home. Her room was the same as it had been a month ago. The light was still red, and everything was still covered in black, but it had been cleaned and disinfected. On the desk was her scout pen, locket, and communicator. Mina looked at them and swept them into her desk drawer. She still meant it. Venus was dead.  
  
Behind her, her mother and Lita stood in the doorway.  
  
"So what do you think?" Asked Lita. "We all pitched in to clean this place up."  
  
"It's nice." Mina said softly. She was still weak as a kitten. She knew they were expecting a smile, but she just couldn't do it.  
  
Lita went to the desk and picked up a jewelry box.  
  
"This wasn't here when we came in." She said.  
  
"What's in it?" Asked Mrs. Anio. Lita opened the box.  
  
"There's just a note. It says 'promises to keep'" Mina raised her eyes to the ceiling.  
  
Maybe she had been wrong to say what she had said......  
  
Epilogue  
  
Forest Hills, Queens, New York. Three weeks earlier.............  
  
He opened the box and studied the contents, five envelopes of paper, four CD's, three laser discs, two Syquest Gigadrive cartridges,  
  
"And a partridge in a pear tree." He said softly then laughed. Now what could his cousin have sent him?  
  
He picked an envelope at random and opened it. Pictures and notes fell into his hands. His eye brows shot up. "Well now. This is interesting."  
  
With that, he settled back to read.  
  
"First One A has been terminated. First one B now in place and beginning development."  
  
"And what of Second One?"  
  
"Still dormant. Initial steps for activation have been received by Second One."  
  
"Calculate period until activation." 


	4. Conrad

Aska, Japan. 300 miles north of Tokyo.  
  
The C-4 Cargo plane, bearing the Logo of Sunboomer Autos, touched down on the airport in the small town of Aska, Japan. 300 miles north of Tokyo. It finally taxied to a deserted section of the airfield and braked to a stop.  
  
The back door slowly lowered on hydraulics and began to disgorge it's cargo. 40 Sunboomer 8000's The hottest new Sports Car on the World Market. They resembled the much vaunted Lamborgini in shape, but the similarities ended there. Sunboomers sat 5 comfortably, had a convertible roof and were made of a super-light, super-strong, titanium-steel space age alloy.  
  
Finally the last car rolled off the plane, but this one was privately owned, and it's owner followed it down.  
  
David Howard, President of Sunboomer Autos Inc., Japan, stepped off the ramp and took a breath of the air. This was his first time out of America, save numerous vacations and bisnuess trips to Canada and this deserted Tarmac was his first view of the country that would be the home of him and his family for the next few years. Because Tokyo International could not handle the cargo plane, the first shipment of Sunboomer cars were shipped here to this near-deserted airfield, 300 miles north of Tokyo. From here, the cars would be shipped by truck to Tokyo and the showroom. He looked at his car. Unlike the others, this one had been made in America, for use on American roads. Hence, the Driver's side was on the left. He turned back to the hatch of the plane.  
  
"Conrad! Come on! It's a three hundred mile drive to Tokyo!" Conrad, his firstborn, came down the ramp, using his cane to steady himself. As a child, Conrad had suffered cancer and then polio in the muscle tissue of his right calf. Chemotherapy had killed it off, but the doctors still had to remove 30% of the muscle tissue. Conrad would need the cane for the rest of his life.  
  
At the base of the ramp, Conrad dug a rubber band out of his pocket and proceeded to tie his slightly longer then shoulder length hair back into a ponytail. Then he took a look around.  
  
"What a dump!" David had to agree.  
  
"We're not here to judge. Get in, and no, you can't drive."  
  
"Aw, but Dad, I drove it everywhere back home."  
  
"We're not in New York anymore. I'm driving." Conrad grumbled something inaudible but probably unrepeatable and tossed his duffel bag into the passenger side. At that moment, a helicopter landed not fifty yards away. Conrad made his way to the front of the car and leaned on the hood as his father ran out to meet it. He talked with the pilot for several moments then ran back to the car.  
  
"It's from the Investors. They've sent it to take me to lunch in Tokyo. Come on." Conrad didn't move.  
  
"No."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Somebody has to take the Sunboomer to the house. Might as well be me."  
  
"You?"  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"The distance."  
  
"The trip to Toronto you and I took. I drove there and back."  
  
"The language barrier."  
  
"I speak Japanese like a native and you know it."  
  
"They drive differently here."  
  
"Can't be any worse then New York Traffic." David took a look at the waiting helicopter.  
  
"Okay," David reached into the duffel bag he carried. "Here's the Map, the address of the house, the car keys, the house keys, the cell phone, and my pager number is already stored in it's memory." Conrad took them.  
  
"Get going. Have fun. Tell those stuffed shirts I said hello."  
  
With one last look at his son, David ran back, climbed in and the helicopter lifted off and headed south. Conrad carried the papers around to the driver's side and got in. The map he set on the passenger floor. The Cell phone on the passenger seat. He put the house keys in his jacket's inside pocket and stuck the car keys in the ignition. The Engine roared to life. Reaching over, he stuck his Megajam Tape into the stereo and turned it on. Then the switch that lowered the roof. He touched the controls for the electric windows and lowered them all. A breeze came up carrying the salt from the nearby sea. He looked down at the gearshift. Automatic Transmission, the only way to go. He shifted into reverse and backed the car away from the plane, then he shifted again and pulled out of the airport. The wind whistled through his hair and he yanked the rubber band out to let it blow freely.  
  
A freeway, 120 miles north of Tokyo  
  
Rose Masterfield tightened her grip on the door handle as the yellow 89 Ford Mustang Convertible sped down the freeway at top speed. Beside her, her friend and lover Christina "Chris" Henderson gripped the wheel, an almost demonic grin on her face. In the backseat, Lita Kino looked at her seatmate. Mina Anio slumped, her arms crossed. Lita frowned. Three months ago, Mina's boyfriend, soul mate and true love had been killed.  
  
His death had changed the normally perky and upbeat Mina. Nowadays, she dressed in black. Her room, once bright and airy, was now dark, lit by a red light bulb that made the room seem almost permeated with blood. To her friends, this was bad, very bad. After David died it was like nothing mattered to her anymore. All her clothes were black except her school uniforms.  
  
Lita leaned over the seat to shout in Chris' ear. "This aint working!"  
  
"You're kidding me!" She shouted back.  
  
"No way! And this was your idea!"  
  
Chris didn't answer, she was staring at a car in the next lane, the expression on her face one of near lust.  
  
The car reminded Lita of a Lamborgini, but how many Lamborghinis were soft- tops? As Lita watched, the car slipped between the other cars and was gone.  
  
"What a car," Chris sighed. "That was a Sunboomer eight thousand. Hottest car on the Market. They go on sale next month here in Japan. They're only about sixty grand too!"  
  
The Next Month, The First day of school.  
  
Amy Anderson hunched into her raincoat. Beside her, her best friend Serena walked quickly, cringing every time thunder clapped. Serena hated Thunder. The rain poured down hard. Ahead, Rini, Serena's so called "cousin" skipped through the puddles.  
  
Amy pulled her head deeper into her hood. Visibility was down to near zero and she could barely see Rini's bright pink raincoat.  
  
"Rini. Come back here." Rini came back, albeit reluctantly.  
  
"But Amy......"  
  
"No arguments," Amy said as she took Rini's hand. "Now stay close."  
  
At that point, the sound of a car came up behind her, and gradually, she could see the headlights of the car. Low and lean, it looked like a sports car, one built for speed."  
  
The car slowed until it was moving at their speed and the window rolled down.  
  
"Amy, right?"  
  
Amy stopped and peered in. "Conrad? Is that you?"  
  
"Yep. You and your girlfriends there look like you could use a lift." The passenger door swung open. "Hop in."  
  
"But the leather...."  
  
"...Is protected against water. In."  
  
Amy, Serena, and Rini got in.  
  
The next afternoon, Serena dragged Mina and Lita over to Conrad's house. Mina went willingly, but she kept her nose buried in some blood and guts fantasy novel during the entire bus ride there. Lita went willingly as well, but more for something to do then anything else.  
  
They got off at the bus stop and walked towards where Conrad had said he lived. As they neared the address he had given Serena, loud music drifted towards them, and Mina's expression actually changed from blank depression to a sort of curious dread. They followed the music to a large house built on two lots. The music, if it could be called that, was coming out of the side door of the 3 car garage. Two expensive BMW's were parked at the curb and a Sunboomer sat parked in the driveway, top up, it's dark blue finish gleaming in the afternoon sun.  
  
Lita absently noted that the driveway was wet, meaning a car, probably the Sunboomer, had been washed within the past few hours. She followed Serena and Mina around to the side door which was open.  
  
Inside, the lighting was dim at best. Shelves and tables piled with electronic, chemical and other such pieces of equipment were pushed against the wall. The walls were a collage of circuit diagrams, race cars, and posters of scantily clad women and one poster of a weird little animal with something in english. A Horseshoe shaped table sat in the middle of the room, also piled with stuff that even Amy would probably have a hard time figuring out.  
  
The only occupant sat at one of the wall tables, his back to them, his fingers dancing on the keys of a computer keyboard. The Music was coming from the back wall. where a full entertainment system sat. Including a 50 inch Big Screen TV.  
  
Serena put two fingers in her mouth and let out a shrill whistle. Mina winced. But her eyes were on the fourth person in the room. Half her prayed that it was who she thought it was, the other half was hoping like hell that it wasn't. The guy shut off the music and turned to face them. Lita stared at him in shock, remembering the hallucination from the trip to Cape Canaveral. She automatically glanced down, but he was wearing pants.  
  
Mina's sanity sat down and began making out it's will and a suicide note.  
  
She smiled, he smiled back and held out his arms, she ran over and gave him a bear hug.  
  
"Damn. I hate to say it, but I've missed you." She turned to face Lita and Serena. "Guys, this is Conrad Howard, he's an old friend and David's cousin." She paused as her eyes fell on a three foot long half metal tube. The top was missing and she could see circuits and wires inside. "Is that what I think it is?" Conrad nodded.  
  
"What is it?" Serena had found a lab stool and was sitting on it. "Some kind of death ray?"  
  
Mina leaned on the horseshoe-shaped table and sighed. " I don't know. Nobody knows." She leveled a finger at Conrad. "He doesn't even know. . .and if it was spawned in his brain, you don't want to know."  
  
The next morning. . .  
  
Lita looked over Conrad's Shoulder. She, Conrad and Amy had chem class together and Conrad was mixing something up. It was amazing that she hadn't noticed him until meeting him.  
  
She glanced at her watch. Two minutes since class had started and the Teacher was no where in sight. Conrad mixed Chemicals then heated the entire thing. After turning off the heat, he grabbed a notebook and began writing furiously. Lita peered at the greenish-brown mixture. "What is it?"  
  
"Not sure. A new kind of fuel I think." Conrad tapped his pencil against his chin.  
  
It was at that point, the teacher walked up.  
  
"What is this?" He snapped, pointing at the beaker. " Conrad shrugged.  
  
"A new kind of fuel I think. I'm not really sure." He handed the teacher the notebook.  
  
"This is what you did?" Conrad nodded. The teacher stared at it for a few more seconds. "Mokoto" A student snapped to.  
  
"Sensei?"  
  
"Fetch the liquid propellant model rocket from the closet." The student ran off and then teacher focused his attention on Conrad. "Well now Mr. Howard, I'm told you have an IQ of one forty-five." A few students whistled at this. "Let us see if you are as inventive as your records say."  
  
Lita pushed her hair out of her eyes. The wind blew it back in. A small crowd had gathered to watch the launch. Conrad had set up the rocket to launch at a twenty degree angle due east. He was now filling up the tank with his new experimental fuel. Finally, he picked up the beaker and walked back to the waiting crowd. He set the beaker down and picked up the remote. He held it thoughtfully for a moment.  
  
"Yoda was not a scientist. You cannot know whether or not you can do or do not, without trying." With that, he punched the button. With a hiss, the rocket leaped off the launcher. It flew higher and disappeared into the sky. After a few minutes, the crowd split up into smaller groups.  
  
Conrad stood there, watching where the rocket disappeared. Finally, his shoulders slumped and he walked back to where the launcher sat. He set the beaker down to on the grass and then just stood there, staring at the launcher. Something inside Lita hated to see him like that and she walked over and laid a hand on his shoulder.  
  
"You tried. That was pretty impressive, I've never seen a rocket do that before."  
  
"I shall have to replace the rocket I suppose. It's probably at the bottom of the Atlantic by now. I hope it is anyway. . ." He let out a sigh. "Oh well." He crouched down and began to pack up the launcher. Lita dropped to her knees and began to help him. After a few minutes, a high-pitched whistle reached her ears. Then she heard shouts  
  
"Look!"  
  
"What the hell is it?"  
  
"Maybe it's the rocket!"  
  
"Impossible."  
  
"Shit! It is the rocket!" Lita looked up as a student set the binoculars down. High in the sky, a speck was approaching fast. She nudged Conrad and pointed. He looked up and followed her finger, then he scooped up his cane and ran for the building. Lita followed, leaving the beaker of fuel with the launcher, her long legs soon carrying her past Conrad. The whistle got louder and louder and then something hit the ground and there was an earthshaking boom that made the ground heave and something crashed into her from behind, knocking her to the ground.  
  
After a few moments, she opened her eyes to find Conrad staring her in the face. She Smiled. He smiled. She thought of the hallucination, and for a moment, wondered. . .  
  
Then she shook herself back to reality.  
  
Nah She thought, that's a little too crazy.  
  
Then they looked behind them.  
  
Where the launcher had once stood, a fire now danced. Lita let out a low whistle.  
  
"Interesting," Conrad said, staring at the flames, "the fire should be spreading."  
  
"Maybe it's the dew on the grass," Lita scratched her head. "I mean, wouldn't the water keep the fire under control?"  
  
"Not with chemicals like that, I can feel the heat from here. We should be seeing an inferno. Amazing."  
  
Conrad and Lita sat in the Headmaster's office. The Headmaster was pacing behind them.  
  
"Do you know what it will cost to replace the grass that was burned?" Lita didn't answer, she looked at Conrad. He had a look on his face that seemed to imply that being in the headmaster's office was nothing new to him. Conrad finally raised his eyes to meet the headmaster's.  
  
"Sir. What happened this morning was regrettable and as it was my experiment that caused the fire, I take full responsibility and will of course see to it that the grass is replaced. But I would also like to make an appointment to speak with you about the extensive financial windfall that could be coming out of this."  
  
"Damn right you'll replace the grass-"The headmaster sat down behind his desk. "-what financial windfall?"  
  
"The chemicals I used to create the fuel seemed to have combined in a rather unusual way. Not only does it seem to be a super fuel of some kind, but it seems to have the ability to prevent fire from spreading."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Sir. At the time of the crash I was twenty feet away from the impact. I could feel the heat as though I was right next to it. Also, if the fire was as hot as it seemed, then the entire field should have been a raging inferno by the time the fire department arrived. But it wasn't. The fire stayed confined to the immediate area of the crash site. In fact, it seems to have burned only where the chemical spilled. If my theory is correct, this chemical, while highly combustible, may be the answer to fighting wildfires. My father's company, Sunboomer Autos, does own a Chemical R&D research facility back in America, if he was to send the fuel to them, and they could figure out why it does what it does, it could cause a jump in stock, and money for the investors. Naturally, as the inventor of the stuff, I would have to give credit to the school, as it was the school's equipment and chemicals I used to make it. This could lead to increased publicity and a rise in enrollment. Both good."  
  
"But the school is not an investor in your father's company."  
  
"No, but the company does have a program for schools to invest in stock. This also lets them give their students a hands on lesson in economics."  
  
"I get the feeling you're telling me this to get out of trouble."  
  
"Yes, sir."  
  
"It worked. Have your father talk to me about this investment thing and I'll drop this whole matter. But, I never want to see you in my office in connection with any other kind of mess at this school." Conrad nodded.  
  
"Of course."  
  
A few days later, the headmaster woke to find a rubber mouse staring him in the face. He had no idea how it got there, nor the honey in his hair. Or, later that day, the rubber inflatable goat in his office on his desk chair. That same day, Conrad and Lita were talking over their lunches on one of the statues in front of the school library.  
  
"Conrad, can I ask you something about David?"  
  
"Hm?"  
  
"Why was he so bitter all the time?"  
  
"Mostly because of Thad, I guess."  
  
"Thad?"  
  
"Yeah. After the accident, David couldn't walk. Thad constantly reminded him of that. It didn't help that Uncle Jeff is a hiking and camping enthusiast, and you can't take a wheelchair up into the mountains. So Thad got to take a lot of these trips, have fun and spend time with Uncle Jeff and he made sure David knew about all the fun they had. . .  
  
Since David spent a lot of time at home, I began to hang out with him. We played chess a lot, seeing who could come up with the fastest strategy, or read mysteries to each other and tried to see how fast we could come up with an answer."  
  
"So that's where he got that tactical ability."  
  
"Part of it anyway."  
  
"You mentioned an accident, what happened?"  
  
"One day, we were walking around New York, a car veered onto the sidewalk, the car bumper hitting his legs. It was a hit and run. Fortunately, Mina and me were around to rush him to the hospital. Actually, Mina ran for the phone."  
  
"What happened to your legs, if you don't mind my asking?"  
  
"Contracted Polio and Cancer at the same time. They had to cut away part of my leg."  
  
"Oh." Neither of them said anything much after that.  
  
That evening, the Senshi and Darien were walking through the Shopping district. Serena and Raye were arguing, as usual. Amy was reading a book, Lita was checking out guys. Mina hung back at the rear, not really taking part in any of it. She was dressed entirely in Black. Black T-shirt, Black Leather Biker Jacket, Black Jeans, Black Doc Martens. The only spots of color was her Blond Hair and blue eyes. The hair she had tied back in a French Braid. Her face was blank and lifeless, as it had been since David's death.  
  
Lita glanced back. Mina just plodded on. Head down, hands shoved into her jacket pockets. It occurred to Lita that the Negaverse hadn't been active since David and the Black Lady went into that other dimension.  
  
At that point the street erupted in a Vertical Plume of fire. When the plume vanished, a strange creature stood there. It looked like a cross between a Crab and a frog, blown up to the size of a medium sized whale. Standing on it's head, was none other then Malachite. There was dead silence while the people took this in. Then they all panicked.  
  
"I thought you said you and David clobbered him seven ways from Sunday!" Raye yelled over the screams.  
  
"We did! The Knight practically tore him in half!" Lita yelled back. "He rejuvenated and regenerated somehow!"  
  
Raye opened her mouth to yell something back, but before she could a blur rocketed down the street and smacked the Crab-Frog under the chin. It tumbled over backwards. The Blur continued it's upwards flight, twisted around and shot back down to street level, coming to a dead stop about six feet from the street, it's red and Black armor gleaming in the light from the fires. The Lance in it's right hand shined and sharp.  
  
"Oh God." Mina said in a choked whisper. "Oh My God......" That said it all Lita thought. That said it all.  
  
The Crystal Knight was back in town.  
  
For Lita, it was as though time had slowed down to a crawl. The others staring in shock, The Knight hovering there in mid-air, something she had never seen him do, then out of the corner of her eye, Mina moving forward, David's name on her lips, her hand already taking out the wand.  
  
Something told her that if Mina got into the battle it would not be good. She spun on her heel, her hand chopping at Mina's wrist and making her drop her wand. Mina looked at her in shock. Lita's hand was already coming back up, forming into a fist and cracking Mina in the side of the head. Mina's head snapped back. Lita was already moving, her right arm slipping behind Mina's shoulder blades, pulling her down as Lita's left hand snapped out and snagged Mina's wand. Rotating on the balls of her feet, she caught Mina before she hit the ground. Time speeded back up to normal. Lita stared at Mina's face. That was the fastest she had ever moved in her life. Even as Jupiter she had never reacted with such speed. Hell, maybe time had slowed down. By now the others had noticed that Mina had crumpled.  
  
"What happened?" Raye crouched down next to them as Amy took Mina's pulse. Lita shrugged.  
  
"She either fainted or got hit by a flying rock." She said as she slipped Mina's wand into her overalls. Better she lie now and tell the truth later.  
  
Malachite was also hovering, staring in utter shock. "So, you survived." The Knight said nothing. "No jibes? No comments about me? I'm disappointed." The Knight's visor glowed. Then his free hand suddenly glowed with green fire and he flung it at Malachite, hitting him smack in the middle of the chest. Malachite groaned and vanished. Lita was astonished. That was not David, and definitely not the Crystal Knight she had grown to know. That move had been precisely calculated to remove Malachite from the picture with minimum effort and time. She swore to herself under her breath. Who the hell was this guy?  
  
The creature had managed to get to it's feet. It was now focused on it's new enemy. It raised it's claw and brought it down. The knight was no longer there. He had moved the nessacary distance not to be caught by the claw. Once the claw was stuck in the asphalt, he used the lance to chop it off. Enraged. The creature brought it's other claw down. The knight repeated his earlier maneuver and chopped it off. Then he put the lance away. The green fire formed around his hands, and he vaporized the things head. Then he flew away.  
  
Raye swore, uttering several things in her disbelief that Chad would probably be only to happy to do to her. Lita pushed such thoughts out of her mind. She flung Mina over her shoulder in a fireman's carry.  
  
"C'mon guys. Let's get out of here."  
  
Lita's Loft  
  
"...and officials still have no idea how the creature, which has marine biologists baffled, got inland without being detected. Or who the strange man who had been standing on it's head was. Officials are also baffled by the return and odd behavior of the Crystal Knight. Noted for his wisecracks and destructive tatics, he has been repeatedly condemned by city officials.  
  
However, this time, he acted different. The Master of a dojo who was in the area for dinner out, said that the Knight had dispatched both foes with a minimum of effort. He could see no wasted movement or energy. Donna Chang, CNN, Tokyo."  
  
"Thank you Donna." The newscaster looked at the camera. "Donna Chang in the shopping district. For those of you just joining us, the top story is the underground explosion that has left three people dead and more then a hundred injured when a strange creature erupted from the ground in Tokyo's Entertainment district. In other news today, Crystalline Laboratories began construction on their new lab. Located in the middle of Siberia, the lab will begin to probe the much used idea of parallel universes-" Lita turned off the TV. Mina lay on her couch, out cold. After returning, they had called an emergency meeting of all Senshi and their allies. Besides Nephrite and Molly, Darien, the Four sisters and Greg were also present. Only Kate, who was the enigmatic Sailor Pluto, Hotaru, Rini and the mysterious Chibi-Chibi weren't there.  
  
"That wasn't David," She said.  
  
"How can you be sure?" Asked Serena around a mouthful of cookies.  
  
"Yeah," Raye chimed in." What makes you so sure?" Lita walked to the window and looked out, her arms crossed. Hugging herself.  
  
"Because I've been a Senshi a long time and I've seen some pretty weird shit." She turned, and took a few moments to phrase her next statement carefully. "That Knight was stone cold. He took out both Malachite and that....thing, whatever it was in less time then it would take us. Furthermore, based on what we do know about the Crystal Knight Armor, there's only two personalities. Whoever uses it, and it's own."  
  
"What if the two merged?"  
  
"Possible, But it doesn't add up. What we saw today, was someone doing their job with no wasted time or effort. Even by the most wild stretch of the imagination, I cannot see a merge between David and the Knight producing a third personality like that."  
  
"So what does it mean?" Asked Rose. Lita took a deep breath.  
  
"It means someone else has the armor and most likely the duplicate Silver Imperium Crystal." Said Nephrite before Lita could reply. Amy nodded agreement.  
  
"I can see no other explanation. There is still so little we know about the Crystal and our own powers for that matter."  
  
"So where does that leave us?" Asked Chris. "That attack tonight was targeted at you guys, I'm sure of it. Except the Knight appeared before you could make the change."  
  
"So what does it all mean?" Asked Serena. But it was Rose who answered.  
  
"'Come all ye who are willing and able. To swing a sword or plant a tree. No challenge is easy, no road worth traveling be soft. But for those with courage, the world is theirs.' My Grandfather wrote that. He told me to remember it when I couldn't figure something out or life was hard . . ."  
  
No one spoke much after that. The quiet gave Lita some time to think. She was not by nature an introspective person. But there had just been so much to take in lately. Now someone else had the Crystal Knight's armor and the most powerful Crystal on the planet.  
  
At least, she consoled herself, her life wouldn't be boring.  
  
The news was even grimmer the next morning. The death toll from the attack had risen to five and a hundred and fifty injured. The city had lost millions in revenue because of the damage. Cleanup could take weeks and that was delayed for who knew how long because government scientists were trying to track down the creature's point of origin.  
  
Lita poured herself some cereal and sat down with the paper. She skipped past the headlines and went directly to the funnies. She enjoyed Sundays. She always took the morning to relax. Her hair hung loose. She wore a rumpled sweatshirt and even more rumpled sweatpants.  
  
After Breakfast, she wandered up to the roof and began going through her katas.  
  
Across town, Darien breakfasted on the balcony of his Apartment, pondering this new Knight.  
  
Raye mediated in front of the fire, seeking the meaning of this new Crystal Knight. Was he friend or foe?  
  
Amy read the front page article, and all pertinent articles in the paper that she could find, and sat, lost in thought, for over an hour at the table.  
  
Mina, after reading the article in silence, walked into her room and lit a candle, the one in front of David's picture in the small shrine she had made. After turning off the red light in her room, she stared into the flame, her eyes seeming to see into a world of shadows. Artemis watched her from his basket in the corner of the room, his expression solemn and his eyes revealing nothing of what was within.  
  
Rose and Chris read the paper together over a breakfast of eclairs and disgustingly strong coffee, their eyes scanning the paper rapidly as they read. When finished, Chris set the paper down and leaned back, looking at her love.  
  
Rose softly quoted from one of her favorite books, "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes." Chris nodded in quiet agreement.  
  
Serena, sleeping in as usual, missed the paper entirely, and only just managed to make it to the scout meeting on time.  
  
When she got there it touched off another one of her and Raye's shouting matches. The others had long ago learned to let these run their courses. Mina and Amy got out books, Lita starting knitting, Chris and Rose took a walk.  
  
Serena and Raye's voices were getting hoarse when Chad came in carrying a dinner plate sized stone disc.  
  
"Hey dudettes! Check this out!"  
  
"What is it?" Lita and Amy got up to take a look. Runes ran around the edge of one side. In the middle was three indentations each about the size of Chad's thumb in a triangle formation. Raye and Serena both came over, their curiosity more powerful then their disagreement.  
  
"Where did you get it?" Asked Raye, taking it out of Chad's hands.  
  
"Your Grandpa and I dug it up when we were putting the foundation for the gazebo."  
  
Raye looked back at the disc.  
  
"I'm getting some bad vibes off this guys." Lita looked at Amy, who had her Senshi computer out and was concealing it with her body while scanning the disc. After a moment, she looked up and shook her head.  
  
Artimes shook his head.  
  
"We need help." He said quietly to Luna. Mina looked at them.  
  
"Yeah, but aside from Amy, who's got the ability to translate it?" She said, scooting closer.  
  
"Well......what about your friend Conrad?" Asked Luna. Mina's jaw dropped.  
  
"No!" She hissed. "He'll want to know details! We slip up even the tiniest bit, and he could latch on to the fact that we're the Senshi!"  
  
"Oh Come on," Luna shot back. "Nobody can latch on to the fact that you're the Senshi with that little information." Mina sighed, she didn't like it, but she knew they were right.  
  
"You don't know Conrad." She stood up. "Come on guys," she said, reluctance in her voice, "I know someone who can help.  
  
Conrad was sitting on the driveway building a geometric design with legos when they arrived. A Santa hat sat lopsided on his head and he had on Spock ears. He was staring at it with intense concentration. Upon finishing, he stood up and held it out, then drop-kicked it into the bed of a passing truck.  
  
"What was that all about?" asked Lita.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"That thing you just kicked into the truck."  
  
"What thing?" He asked, blinking. Mina sighed.  
  
"Don't bother Lita. If you push, he might remember and explain it to you."  
  
Lita looked at Conrad, he was staring after the truck, a completely absorbed look on his face. Then he looked at her and she was captivated by his eyes. He blinked, and the absorbed look was gone, as though a mental gear had shifted.  
  
"What can I do for you?" Mina held out the disc to him.  
  
"Raye's Grandfather's apprentice found this. We're wondering what you could make of it." Conrad peered at the disc.  
  
"Interesting, these indentations would seem to be some kind of receptacle and the runes are probably incantations or spells for some purpose." He picked up his cane and headed for the side door of the garage.  
  
Inside, he placed the disc on what looked like an overhead projector. Next to it was what looked like a hot plate. Taking what seemed to be a shrunken TV tray, he placed it over the platform that the disc sat on.  
  
"What is that?" Asked Serena.  
  
"It's a special kind of scanner. It creates a spectro-electromagnetic field that allows objects within the field to be suspended in mid-air. Thus allowing a better scan to be performed." Lita looked at Amy, wondering just what a spectro-electromagnetic field was. Amy only shrugged, she didn't know either.  
  
"What kind of scan?" Asked Rose, genuinely curious. Two things fascinated Rose: technology and conspiracy theories. If the two happened to intertwine, so much the better.  
  
Conrad sat down in front of his computer.  
  
"Any kind. First, let's see what that thing is made of." He tapped keys, the hot plate's surface began to glow and the disc rose into the air, stood on it's side, and began slowly spinning clockwise. Then, a three color image of the disc appeared in the air over the hot plate.  
  
Within moments, the results came on screen.  
  
"Hmm, based on the results, this is a piece of carved and polished moon rock," Conrad said distractedly as he studied the hologram. "Most fascinating, I wonder how it arrived on Earth." He went back to the computer and began typing again. Within moments, the screen went black except for a blue rectangle which was red at one end. "Now we wait. The computer will scan the Internet and see if it can find a some symbols that look similar, and, if possible, use them to translate the runes." He sat down on a couch near the side door.  
  
"What's this?" Asked Rose, holding up a piece of paper upon which a design was scrawled.  
  
"It's a food growth accelerator that uses flat Diet Cola for fuel."  
  
"Wow!" Rose exclaimed excitedly. The end of the world hunger problem was one of her pet causes, "that's great!"  
  
"No it isn't," Conrad replied.  
  
"What? Why not?"  
  
"Diet Cola tastes awful."  
  
Five Hours later.......  
  
The Senshi gathered around the computer. After a few moments, Conrad turned.  
  
"No translation." There was a general sigh of disappointment. "But," He said raising a finger. "It did come up with a starting point. The runes are indigenous to the written language of the area in and surrounding the central himalayan mountain range used a thousand years ago. Now, the actual dialect of the Runes can be traced to the mountain village of Hinotusniko, which many maintain to this day was the way station for travelers entering and leaving Shangri-La."  
  
"But there's no translation?"  
  
"No." Conrad shrugged. "If you let me have the disc for a while, I might be able to coax something else out of it."  
  
Raye shook her head and reached into the field to grab the disc. "Sorry Conrad." She said. "But this is pretty important to us. You understand."  
  
"Of course." Conrad walked with them to the door. "I understand completely."  
  
When the girls were gone, Conrad returned to his workstation and began shutting down the scanner. Then he looked up at the sound of a slight swishing.  
  
"I thought you were upstairs." Then he smiled. "Yes, I agree it is quite strange." A beep sounded and the screen revealed data. "DNA scan." Conrad read aloud. "No known match of foreign genetic code." He considered this and then called up another program, which demanded he enter a password. He did so and then inputted the data from the scan. This time, he got a perfect match. "Well, well, it seems David didn't have his brains fried. What's that? True. I already have seen proof he wasn't lying." He paused and listened for a while to various noises. "On the contrary, it makes things all the more interesting." With that, Conrad finished shutting down, saved his work and exited the garage to go have dinner.  
  
"I'm telling you, he knows!" Mina, dressed in a black one piece, sat on the edge of the pool that resided atop Lita's apartment building. Over in the corner, Darien and Serena cooed in each other's arms, Lita was in the pool doing laps, and Amy was in a chaise lounge reading. Raye rolled her eyes.  
  
"Come on, you're being paranoid. Next you're gonna be telling me he's a space alien in disguise." Mina glared at her, a reminder of their own not so earthly status. "Right." Raye held up a hand. "I shouldn't talk. But still, you're being awfully silly about this."  
  
"I suppose you're right," Mina swung her legs back and forth in the water. "but still, you don't know what he's like."  
  
"So tell me then." So Mina told a story involving cheese whiz, an inflatable sheep, some glue and a mouse. When she finished, Raye was pale.  
  
"That can't be true by any means."  
  
"It is true." Mina assured her. "I bought the mouse myself."  
  
"Well at least I can understand your fears now."  
  
"Besides Mina," Said Artemis from his spot nearby, "If he's really a space alien, you can ask him for directions to Deep Space Nine!" A dark look crossed Mina's face, and she splashed him, soaking him completely.  
  
"Damn. . ." Lita said, shaking her head. "That is wild." Raye and Lita we're hanging out in front of the mall, where they were supposed to meet the others and Raye had related the story Mina had told her at the pool.  
  
"I know. But she says it's true, she bought the mouse herself," Raye said as she checked her watch. "This Conrad guy is really strange, I hear he turned a pool into a giant tub of Jell-O once."  
  
"Cool, I would have liked to have seen that," Lita said, chuckling. "that must have been a riot."  
  
"Ask Mina for the tape of the news footage" Raye said dryly. It was then that the others arrived and they all entered the mall to go shopping.  
  
As they stalked bargains, Raye watched Mina's face. Conrad's arrival had brought Mina out of her funk a little. She still had yet to smile, but at least she was acting somewhat alive again. Raye felt her guts twist as she recalled Mina's room when they had burst in. Ick.  
  
"Oooh!" Serena held up a gorgeous, if a bit small bikini two-piece. "What do you guys think? It's only nineteen thousand, nine hundred and nintey- five yen!" Raye shook her head.  
  
"Uh-uh, that looks like something some prat with no social life, who spends all his free time writing sour lemon hentai fanfiction would place on a girl in a story. Probably right before several things happened." She began to tick them off on her fingers "A monster rips them off. Her boyfriend or girlfriend, or both rips them off. She rips them off in a fit of lust, or all of the above."  
  
Serena made a face. "And just how would you know so much about sour lemon hentai Raye?"  
  
"How would you know what a sour lemon hentai is?" Raye shot back. Lita clapped a hand on each girl's shoulder.  
  
"Quiet down you two. We don't need one of your famous feuds in the middle of the store." She said firmly. "Now quiet down." Raye and Serena glared at each other. Amy and Lita traded looks of exasperation. Mina simply watched.  
  
Later that evening, Lita's loft......  
  
Lita stepped up next to the workbench mounted on one wall of her loft. Since David's departure, and even before he had ever joined them, Lita's place had been where the Senshi had stashed stuff. With Raye's Grandfather and Chad getting more and more nosy, they had also started meeting here.  
  
Amy was hunched over the torso section of the Black Lady's armor. Her Senshi computer was hooked up to it and feeding the results into David's G3 Macintosh Computer. The genius's fingers were flying as she sorted through the data with astonishing speed.  
  
"Hey Ames, how's it going?" Amy blinked to focus her eyes.  
  
"Not very well I'm afraid. The on board computer is simple-minded, and the OS is written in a language I don't understand. I have to build a translation algorithm before I can even think of accessing the CPU." The G3 burbled and then began to beep once a second. Amy touched some keys. "I'm in." Lita waved Raye, Serena, and Mina over.  
  
"So what do you have?" Mina leaned forward over Amy's shoulder.  
  
"Not much really, Most of it's the OS. The closest language correlation is to English, not Japanese, so some of this may not be translated correctly." Then she paused and highlighted one section. Serena leaned forward. It took her a moment to remember her English.  
  
"Personal journal," she read aloud.  
  
"Does that mean what I think it means?" Mina asked. "Does it mean we can use this against them?"  
  
Amy turned to look at Mina, tapping her fingers idlely on the bench.  
  
"Possibly, but we do have to keep in mind this may be nothing more then her love life. Those are things I can go through life without knowing."  
  
"Well, only one way to find out," Lita said as she reached over Amy's shoulder and tapped the key for the first entry.  
  
Amy looked at her watch and sighed. Hour after hour they had listened to Rini's voice recount tales of her love life. All it proved to them was that Rini was a psychopathic sadistic deviant sociopath.  
  
Lita made a gagging noise.  
  
"First thing tomorrow, I'm getting rid of all my hentai magazines and tapes. We've heard more about her love life then anything else." The computer beeped, heralding a new entry.  
  
"I hate Seekay!" Rini's voice exploded out of the speaker, causing the Senshi to sit up straight. "He walks around the palace like some kind of god expecting us all to cringe before him! I'm ruler of the Negaverse! I AM! Well I'll show him! When I fight the Crystal Knight, I'll beat the crap out of him and then I'll tell them all that, that thrice be dammed Crystal Knight is wearing Sailor Moon's Armor! So what if Seekay will torture me to death. It'll be worth it to watch that prissy faced Sailor Moon try to get her Armor back!"  
  
"That was the last entry." Said the computer in a flat voice. The Senshi stared at each other.  
  
"Of course I'm sure I want to do this. The tires on the flagpole are practically a tradition."  
  
Conrad leaned back, regarding his work.  
  
"Besides, I'm sure it hasn't been done over here before, so the shock value should be fairly high."  
  
His head tilted to the side as if listening to someone, even though the only sound were faint hisses and clicking noises.  
  
"No, I don't think the truck is too much. I think it gives a rather . . . unique . . . touch."  
  
A young man with black hair walked over to Conrad.  
  
"Hey, Conrad, if you're done with the truck, can we go ahead and send the crane back?  
  
Lita leaned against the tree and watched as Mina tended to David's grave. His family had chosen to bury him or rather, bury his wheelchair, as that was all they could find, in Japan as there was some obscure Jones family tradition that required that a family member be buried in the region where they died. Lita closed her eyes and enjoyed the warmth of the setting sun.  
  
Gently, Mina brushed away the dirt and dust and placed fresh flowers in the holders. Beside her Raye murmured Shinto prayers. She sat back on her knees then kissed her fingers and pressed them to the headstone.  
  
"There's a new Crystal Knight in Tokyo David," She said quietly. "We've only seen him once and he beat Malachite in about two seconds flat. I wish you were here." She got to her feet. "I have to go now. I'll see you next week."  
  
With that, she walked back to her friends, Raye close behind. Lita smiled warmly at her.  
  
"Everything okay--aw no!" Lita's eyes had shifted to behind Mina and she let out an explosive and foul sounding curse.  
  
Mina turned to see what could have caused such an outburst but there was nothing but a priest walking along the graves towards them.  
  
"What? It's a priest." Lita sighed.  
  
"Remember I told you about the Seven Shadows?"  
  
"Yeah, so--" Mina's voice broke off as it hit her.  
  
"You think that's a Negaverse 2 Shadow Warrior?" As though in answer, the priest dropped his book and began running, wings ripping out of the back of his robe. "Ask a stupid question...." Mina muttered, flinging herself backwards as a boxing glove ripped through the space she had been standing in. Automatically, Mina's hand went to the small of her back, where she typically kept the transformation pen in a knife holster under her clothes and clipped to her skirt or pants. Her groping fingers encountered only bare skin. Then she remembered her vow that Venus was dead.  
  
"Mina!" She looked. Artemis was crouched near a gravestone her transformation locket laying on the grass before him.  
  
"I-I can't," Mina's eyes were drawn to the battle. The Senshi were taking a pounding. She could help them but that would mean breaking her vow.  
  
Mina's mother had raised her never to break her promises and it was a lesson Mina had taken to heart.  
  
"Mina, you have to become Sailor Venus again!" Luna hissed as she joined them. "They need you!" "  
  
"I can't," Mina sobbed, running her sleeve across her eyes. "I made a promise. I can't break it!"  
  
"They need you!" Luna snapped. "You are a Senshi! You have a duty!"  
  
"I took a vow!" She was knocked on her back as one of the Shadow's explosive gloves shattered a gravestone, raining debris on them. Mina looked at the locket and then at the Senshi who lay stunned by the shock wave. Mina looked back at the locket, then at the Shadow, who was preparing to finish the job.  
  
"Why don't you try that on me?" Said a new voice.  
  
"Eh?" The Shadow and Mina turned to see The Crystal Knight striding across the ruined cemetery like a bulldozer. "Bah!" The Shadow let loose with a flying glove. The Knight didn't even blink, just raised his hand and caught the glove without breaking step.  
  
"This is your weapon? You're kidding me right?" The Knight flung the glove at the Shadow but it disappeared and reappeared on the creature's hand.  
  
"Gonna tear you apart!" The Shadow screeched and charged. The Knight stood his ground.  
  
"Be gentle, it's my second time." Said the Knight in a soft voice and then clotheslined him. Leaving the Shadow lying there, he continued towards the Senshi. He bent over each and then returned to the Shadow, who had returned to his priest form. Mina watched him for a moment, then stood up. He turned to face her.  
  
"David?" She said, her voice a squeaky whisper. The massive figure tilted his head slightly but said nothing  
  
Mina looked at the others who were beginning to stir.  
  
"What do you plan to do with the armor?" She said, pushing away the hair that blew into her eyes as the wind came up.  
  
"What I have to." He rose into the air and flew away, leaving Mina to stare after him.  
  
Behind the Gravestone, Artimes and Luna looked at each other.  
  
"What do you think Luna? Is he friend or foe?"  
  
"I don't know Artimes....." Luna raised her head to look after the Knight. "I honestly don't know."  
  
Mina took a bite of the cake.  
  
"This is good Lita," then she did something she hadn't done for a long a time, she smiled. It wasn't much, a gentle tug at the corner of her lips, but it was a smile. Serena, Amy Raye and Lita returned it. They were all at Lita's place, after Mina had had a near nervous breakdown when everybody at her school had been talking about the Crystal Knight. The Doctors had given her some medication and recommended she be placed on home schooling for a while. Lita's mind drifted back to the attack at the Cemetery last week. It had been odd, fighting without Mina there and she said as much. Mina shook her head.  
  
"Sailor Venus is dead," She said quietly. "just accept it." Lita blinked.  
  
"Hey, that reminds me." She said, as she got up and went to her workbench. She returned carrying Mina's Transformation Pen. "You took this out of your jacket when the new Crystal Knight appeared. I've been meaning to give it back to you." Mina looked at it.  
  
"That can't be my pen." She said. "I threw it, the com and the locket, behind my bed after coming home from David's funeral, and I know it wasn't in my jacket that night."  
  
"I got them out," Artimes volunteered. "Then I hid them under the cushion of my bed." Luna's eyes widened.  
  
"The day of the cemetery battle, was the locket there but not the pen?"  
  
"Yeah. Come to think of it, it was," Mina picked up the pen and was rewarded by a tingle, That was her pen. Luna looked at the pen then at Artimes. All the Senshi had the same question on their minds.  
  
If the pen had been under Artimes' bed, which was nowhere near the closet, and since Artimes would never slip it into Mina's Jacket, and Mina was positive that it hadn't been in her jacket, how did it get there?  
  
Second one has achieved activation.  
  
Venus?  
  
She has not reactivated since termination of First One A  
  
Send insight at time index 345785.2, original Venus power coding.  
  
Affirmative. 


	5. Changes

Prologue.......  
  
Somewhere in Hong Kong......  
  
The room was dark. Lit only by the screen dominating one wall and briefly by the light from the hallway as the door was opened and then closed. The man proceeded to the table in the middle of the room, and sat. Only then did he look at the second man who stood in the shadows.  
  
"Evening."  
  
"Evening."  
  
"I suppose you're wondering what you're doing here."  
  
"I am."  
  
"You were called here because you are the best detective we have. You're being sent to Japan. We want information on some strange going ons there." The first man thought for a moment.  
  
"You're referring to these 'Senshi' that have been tearing up Tokyo and were involved in the destruction of the Booster rockets and tanks that were to lift the reactor flight last month at Cape Canaveral in America."  
  
"Indeed. We have some partial information already." The Screen displayed a festival at night. No one in sight. Then there was a flicker and several shadowy figures appeared. One sprinted off into the trees, The biggest one picked up two and then bounded off, followed by two more. One holding it's right arm.  
  
"Five minutes after this was taken, four girls checked into Tokyo General." A picture of a black-haired Asian girl flashed onto the screen. "Raye Hino. She was diagnosed as having a massive concussion, multiple bruises, and cracked ribs. She was treated for her injuries and released in the morning."  
  
An new Picture flashed onto the screen. Another girl. Her Brown hair was pulled up into a ponytail. "Lita Kino. Diagnosed with dislocated arm, multiple bruises and a few cracked Ribs. She too, was treated and released in the Morning."  
  
A third picture appeared. This one was a gorgeous Blond-haired girl. "Mina Anio. Multiple breaks in her right leg, bruises, and a slight concussion. Also, treated and released in the morning."  
  
A fourth picture appeared. This one was also a girl, only her hair was cut short and dyed blue. "Amy Anderson. Diagnosed with multiple concussions, cracked skull, broken nose. broken ribs, punctured lung, and various other bruises and broken bones. Spent 3 days in the ICU, poor kid. Still, she made a full recovery, the only legacy being some slightly slurred speech and her right eye has trouble focusing."  
  
"What could have done that? For that matter, how did she heal so well?"  
  
"Wasn't easy. She was in Physical therapy for some time. But surprisingly, she has her full motor skills. A healing factor of some kind is suspected.  
  
As for what did it, well the girls said it was muggers. But the level of damage is far too great for that. We think it was these guys." The screen displayed multiple images of men and women, some human, some only human- shaped. "We have no idea who they are, although they all seem to be extra- dimensional in nature. They're not human and are considered Class Zero dangerous.  
  
"What does HQ think?"  
  
"HQ thinks there's a war of some kind going on. These guys want the Earth and the energy it has. These 'Sailor Senshi' are doing everything they can to stop it. All these people on the screen have disappeared and are presumed dead." The Screen changed to display a man. His brown hair was thick and long. "Except him. This is J. Maxsfield Stanton. Playboy and Jet setter. Made his fortune in Real estate and World Banking." The screen displayed Stanton dissolving while a girl held him and sobbed as three Sailor Senshi looked on. "Taped recordings have identified Stanton as someone called Nephrite. From what we can tell, he died.  
  
Officially, Stanton disappeared under 'mysterious circumstances'. That was 3 years ago. Two months ago, he returned. He told the media that he had been touring Europe and took up residence again at his mansion in the hills west of Tokyo."  
  
"Is it Nephrite?"  
  
"Doubtful. We think it's an extra-dimensional duplicate. So far he has kept mostly to himself except for once a week when he has been seen in the company of a local girl, the same one, in fact, that was in the picture you just saw. They meet at a coffee shop near Tokyo Tower. They have coffee and a Chocolate Parfait. They talk for a while, then part.  
  
Her name is Molly Naru. She's New York born and raised. Her mother moved here some time ago and opened a Jewelry shop following a messy and nasty divorce."  
  
"What's the mission?"  
  
"Go to Tokyo. Track the Senshi. Gather intelligence. When you can't gather any more, contact them."  
  
"Recruitment?"  
  
"Affirmative. They're using level one class Alien technology. ."  
  
"Level one class? But that means.."  
  
"We know." The second man's voice was weary.  
  
"If Elurius is mixed up in this, it could mean interstellar war. Earth has no allies and no way except for us to defend itself against that psychopath. Nobody is going to want to get in his way except Emperor Azusa, and if they fight, Earth will be devastated." Although the first man was saying aloud what both knew, it served to drive home the problem they faced.  
  
A CD-ROM was set on the table near the first Man's elbow.  
  
"That's everything we have on the Sailor Senshi. Powers, possible civilian ID, that sort of thing." The first man picked up the disk.  
  
"Limits?" He asked, his mind already listing ways around them.  
  
"Keep your cover. Howard arrived Last week."  
  
"You're kidding."  
  
"No. I don't need to tell you what might happen if that kid finds out about us. We've both seen his record." The first man nodded. The Howard kid had come very close to discovering The Project more then once.  
  
"Keep your cover as best you can. Other then that, you're free to use your discretion."  
  
"Yes Sir." The First man sat back and watched a tape of the Senshi battle various foes.  
  
Mina Anio hopped off the back of the motorcycle. Her black T-shirt and Jeans hugging her slim form. Her long Blond hair was braided and swung as best as it could from where it hung beneath the shiny black helmet. The Driver, Lita Kino, pulled off her own helmet. Mina took off the helmet and set aside while she dug through the saddlebags.  
  
Lita was nearly 17. An Orphan, she lived alone, but she had a rich social life. Mina was 16, but was subject to bouts of deep depression due to the death of her boyfriend. But the bouts came less and less these days.  
  
They both gathered their stuff, and headed for the house.  
  
The house was huge. A Mansion that had resided in the Catskill Mountains back in New York, it had been bought and shipped piece by piece to Japan. Where the Owner, one Henry Spencer, who had made a fortune back in the 50's when the U.S helped rebuild Japan after world war 2, bought a huge amount of land and reinstalled the house on it. He then bought up more land and built a company town for the workers at his textile and metal fabrication plants. Although the Plants went belly-up in the 70's, the houses remained and thanks to some ingenious marketing from the bank, had become a real estate hot spot for the rich and Famous of Tokyo's elite .  
  
Spencer's old house was now the Residence of the Howard Family.  
  
Instead of going up to the Front door they went around to the side of the garage and up the stairs to the Apartment above the Garage. Spencer's butler/limo driver had lived here. Now it and the Garage below it were home to Conrad Howard, a certified Genius and current victim of one hell of a flu. Lita cheerfully knocked on the door. Neither one had been in the Apartment before. The Door was opened by a spiky blue haired, black leather clad, gum chewing apparition.  
  
"Yo. Welcome." Having divulged this, the apparition turned and walked away. Lita and Mina walked in. The Apartment was a pigsty. Video Tapes, papers with scrawled calculations, plates piled high in the sink dirty and unwashed.  
  
"Jeez, no wonder he got sick, look at this place." Lita set her bags down. Mina shrugged.  
  
"Conrad has been like this for years, his mind is always active and he can get so absorbed in something he forgets general hygiene."  
  
"Well he can't get well in this." Having said that, Lita headed for the kitchen and soon the sound of dishes being washed could be heard. Mina shrugged and headed down the hallway, she opened the door on her left and squeezed through. The reason that the door didn't open very far was because of the fifty or so arrows stuck in the back.  
  
The room was also a mess. Clothes lay scattered on the floor along with papers, circuit boards, books and duffel bags.  
  
There were two other people in the room besides her. One was a young man, 16 years old, lying on the bed with an ice bag on his head and a thermometer in his mouth. The other was a woman who reminded her of Janine Turner as June Cleaver. The sick one was Conrad, the woman was his mother. Mary Howard, a brilliant chemical and computer engineer. She was also very absent-minded, tending to forget everything when she became caught up in a project. About the only thing that could distract her was her children needing her. She was seated on the bed and she reached over and plucked the thermometer out.  
  
"104 degrees. A two degree drop. Hello Mina." She said without looking up. "Where's your friend Lita?"  
  
"In the kitchen doing dishes."  
  
"Oh good. I was going to do that next. I guess I had better go help Shellie."  
  
"Shellie's here?" Mina thought back to the apparition that had answered the door. "Was that Shellie who answered the door?"  
  
"Yes. She's 13 now and going through that whole teen angst thing. Her father and I have decided to let her go and wear that outfit, instead of fighting with her."  
  
"Oh." Mina went back to the door and started pulling the arrows out.  
  
"So how have you been?"  
  
"I'm great, I've made some new friends. Without them, I don't think I......I....." Mina closed her eyes, fighting back tears. Almost instantly, Mary was off the bed and hugging her.  
  
"There, there." She crooned. "Let it out." Mina sobbed hard.  
  
"I miss him so much!" She cried between sobs. But even in her grief, Mina knew she couldn't tell Mary the truth about David's death. That she and her friends were the Sailor Senshi, Reborn Alien Princesses with superpowers. She certainly couldn't tell her that David had been The Crystal Knight, an armored warrior who had sacrificed himself to keep the Black Lady, an evil woman from the future and another dimension who had come back in time to take over the world. David had shoved her through a Portal into another dimension and then followed her in to make sure she stayed there. As a cover story, the Senshi had thrown his wheelchair off a cliff into the sea, then called for help. When they dredged the ocean bottom, they found only his chair. Officials assumed that the body had been dragged out to sea or smashed against the rocks below the cliff. The story they had told the cops was that David had rolled his chair to the cliff to get a picture of the sunrise, his chair brakes had slipped and he went over the edge before anyone could reach him.  
  
They bought it, fortunately. Although there were a few people who refused to believe that David could have slipped. But they had no proof. Chris was quite good at covering tracks. There was simply no proof that David had been pushed. The Case was considered closed.  
  
But now there was a new Crystal knight Operating. Only this seemed more.....Alien.......cold.  
  
As though he was here to deal with the Negaverse, and that was it.  
  
It was what was keeping Mina from going suicidal. She knew that she was clinging to false hope, that it probably wasn't David, but if he had come back to her, she wanted to know. She had to know. That need to know is what had been keeping her going. She had begun to eat again, even smile a little. Although much of it was due to Conrad.  
  
Her eyes fell on the amazing Iggy, AKA 'Einstein', Conrad's pet iguana, who was watching her from Conrad's bed, his beady black eyes open wide. Mina sniffled, watching the iguana as Mary led her to the bed to sit down. Once they had sat down, Iggy promptly picked up something in his mouth, carried it to Mina, and offered it to her. It was the drumstick that Conrad and him played games of 'Bat-Iguana' with. Mina smiled weakly then picked up the drumstick, holding it level to the bed. Iggy promptly grabbed onto it with his hind feet and as the drumstick was raised, he came to be hanging upside down from it. Iggy blinked at Mina, an innocent 'I'm just a lizard ma'am, don't mind me' look in his beady black eyes.  
  
Mina set the stick back down and Iggy crawled back to rest by Conrad's arm. By now, Conrad had dozed off.  
  
"He's very intelligent for a lizard." Mina said. Mary shrugged.  
  
"He's certainly loyal. He and Conrad haven't parted since David gave him to Conrad as a gift." She smiled, got up, and left.  
  
Since it had to be done anyway, Mina began to clean up. The Clothes were tossed in the hamper, the circuit boards in a cardboard box. The Books and Papers she stacked and set on the desk. The duffel bags were tossed into the closet. Then she left the room and headed back down the hall. The Living room had been transformed. The plates were gone. The tapes had been stacked neatly on the coffee table. As had the papers. Everything was cleaned and polished.  
  
"Wow."  
  
"You like?" Lita was relaxing on the couch.  
  
"Yeah......wow."  
  
When Conrad woke up a few hours later, he found that Mina was sitting by his bed. She looked at the strange expression on his face.  
  
"You look like you've had a killer dream."  
  
"Yeah. These Penthouse Pets wanted to take me to Funkytown. So I went. Several times."  
  
"Even your dreams are weird. You hate that song."  
  
"Hate the song, enjoyed the company." He grinned wickedly at her. Mina rolled her eyes and jammed the thermometer in his mouth.  
  
A Few days Later.  
  
Conrad limped into the living room, his leg, as it often did, was hurting. He set himself on the couch and stuck his leg on the coffee table. Making sure his heel rested on a magazine.  
  
A few minutes later, Shellie walked in, dressed in a T-shirt and cutoffs. Her hair was an off-blue today and she wore her usual sour expression.  
  
Neither sibling greeted each other. Instead, they sat in silence. Another few minutes passed and their parents entered. Without a word, David Howard handed Conrad a brochure.  
  
After reading it, he tossed it casually in Shellie's direction.  
  
"I assume the paperwork has already been put through." As he often did, he said it as a statement, not a question. David nodded.  
  
"We feel it is best. You both have many talents and we feel that Fugimyia Academy is the best place for you two." Conrad considered this for a moment.  
  
"Alright." Shellie was bit more vocal.  
  
"What?! You're willing to let them ship you off to-" Conrad cut her off  
  
"-To where they are not." Shellie's mouth snapped shut as she too, considered the fact that they were going where there was no parents.  
  
"Okay," she said quietly. I'll go."  
  
That Night......  
  
David Howard stared as Conrad raked the last of the poker chips into a pile.  
  
"I don't understand how you can constantly beat me at poker even with a fresh, unopened deck." Conrad looked at him for a moment.  
  
"Math."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"Yes. 52 cards, 13 cards per suite. From top to bottom the suites are stacked in the order of Spades, Hearts, Clubs, and diamonds." He left the rest for his father to figure out.  
  
"I see." David stacked up the cards. He knew very well that Conrad's IQ was light years beyond the 145 the Mental Aptitude test that Conrad had taken at age 11 had claimed. Statements like the one he had just given proved it. "So?" Conrad took the deck and held onto it for a moment. Then he plucked four cards from various parts of the deck and laid them on the table face down. David reached out and turned them over. Each one was an Ace. Then it clicked for him. Conrad had memorized the order of the deck, then watching him shuffle and using some math, he could calculate, with a reasonable degree of accuracy, what each card dealt would be. Amazing.  
  
With a sigh, David handed Conrad the keys to the Sunboomer. He and Conrad had been playing poker to settle arguments for the past 5 years. This one had been to decide whether or not Conrad took the Sunboomer to the Academy. Conrad had won after 2 hours of solid playing. Which made Conrad's trick all the more amazing as he would have to keep track of the ever changing order of cards. With chagrin, David admitted to himself that he had been flamboozeled for the past five years. He decided not make an issue of it.  
  
"You take good care of it."  
  
"Like it was my very own."  
  
One month later, Raye's temple. Thursday After School.  
  
Lita bit into the cookie. tomorrow, she and the others would be boarding the bus for Fugimyia Academy, located near the north tip of Japan. She wondered what they would find there.  
  
"Oooh! I can't wait!" Serena smiled happily. "No parents, open campus! Free Food!"  
  
"At least she knows what's important." Chris commented sourly. Amy looked up from her Trig textbook.  
  
"But what about the Negaverse? If we're there, and they attack here, what's to stop them?"  
  
"Me, Chris, Kate and Hotaru, The Four sisters and Nephrite." Rose looked around. "Besides, if they want us, they'll find us."  
  
"True."  
  
The Next Morning.  
  
Greg Morgan stood in front of his house. His luggage consisted of two suitcases, a military duffel, and his backpack. Conrad had offered to take him to the Academy. But he was late.  
  
As soon as that thought entered his head, a dark blue convertible with the Top down turned the corner and right into his driveway. Conrad grinned at him from the driver's seat.  
  
"Sorry I took so long, had to make some stops." He got out and stretched. He was dressed for travel. Under the baseball jacket was what appeared to be a Short-sleeved denim shirt over a T-Shirt that bore an Umbrella and read, "Hail the Sacred Umbrella, or get thwacked!" His jeans appeared to be well-worn and on his feet....Greg blinked. Conrad was wearing Bunny Slippers. The really strange part was that it made sense for Conrad. Greg had learned early on that Conrad did things that made no sense to anyone else but apparently made perfect sense to him. For his part, Greg was wearing his school uniform at his mother's insistence.  
  
"Nice....slippers." He managed to get out.  
  
"Thank you." Conrad picked up the backpack and tossed it onto the passenger seat. "Just stick it on the rear floor." Sighing, Greg picked up his duffel and was about to toss it in. That's when he saw that the back floor was covered in bags and suitcases and on top of it was Shellie, stretched out, her hands behind her head.  
  
Seeing him, she snapped her gum and lifted up her legs.  
  
"Suitcases first." She said simply. Conrad tossed in Greg's suitcases one on top of the other. Then in went the duffel. Shellie dropped her legs on top of it. Greg waved good-bye to his parents as he got in and buckled the seat belt. Conrad got in.  
  
"Ready?" He said with a smile.  
  
"I guess so." The engine roared to life. The car backed out of the driveway, pushing Greg forward against his seatbelt. Conrad shifted gears and put the accelerator pedal to the floor, slamming Greg against the seat.  
  
"Nice huh?" Conrad took one hand off the wheel and took out a pair of mirrored sunglasses, turning the corner at top speed as he put them on. Greg gripped the side of the car, positive he felt the driver's side wheels briefly lift off of the pavement. Conrad didn't even bother slowing as they hit traffic, weaving the car in and out between other cars. Greg winced as horns blasted left and right. But finally they hit the stoplight. Greg discovered he was breathing so hard he was practically hyperventilating.  
  
"What's wrong? You're white as a sheet." Conrad drank from a travel mug that bore the logo of the Statue of Liberty.  
  
"What's wrong? You nearly killed us!" Conrad seemed puzzled.  
  
"How did I do that?"  
  
"Weaving through the cars like a maniac!" Greg's voice had risen to a fever pitch. Conrad shrugged and hit the accelerator as the light changed to green.  
  
"Greg, do you, and I'm saying this as a friend, do you know what your problem is?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"You're too uptight."  
  
Shelly popped up from the back seat and stuck her head between them.  
  
"Yeah, you need to loosen up." She snapped her gum.  
  
"Have a laugh now and then." Conrad said as he changed lanes without signaling.  
  
"I--" Greg gulped out, But Conrad continued.  
  
"See Greg, how we grow up shapes how we react to life, how we dress, even the kind of friends we choose. So if your parents are racist atheists, then you'll be one too, unless you encounter an opposing influence. That's one of the great things about being human you see, we can make conscious decisions to change our behavior if we so choose."  
  
"Uh-huh," was all Greg managed to get out.  
  
"So if you want to loosen up, you have to make a conscious decision to change. You told me that you wanted to learn how to relax and loosen up didn't you?  
  
"Uh-huh." They changed lanes.  
  
"So as the first step towards loosening up, why not lose the monkey suit?"  
  
"My uniform?"  
  
"Just the jacket." Greg hesitated then pulled it off.  
  
"Now what?" He said, crumpling it up into a wadded ball.  
  
"Chuck it."  
  
"You mean just toss it away?"  
  
"Yep."  
  
"I dunno......I mean, I could hit someone."  
  
"And?" Conrad looked over at him. "So what? You wanted to be adventurous right?"  
  
"Well, yeah......." The Car stopped for a light.  
  
"So chuck it." Greg looked down at the wadded ball in his hands.  
  
"Where?"  
  
"How about Cyrano over there?" Conrad pointed. Turing his head to follow the finger, Greg saw a tall guy dressed in a gi with a wooden sword in his hand reciting bad poetry to well-built redheaded pigtailed girl in Chinese clothes who looked like she wanted to cream the other guy. Off to one side stood a second girl holding a black pig with a yellow kerchief around it's neck. At that point, Shellie sat up in the back seat and yelled.  
  
"Hey! Cyrano de Moron!" They all turned to look at them.  
  
Figuring what the hell, Greg pitched the ball and smacked it right into the bad poet's face as the light changed. Turning his head to see the aftereffects he saw Shellie giving Cyrano the finger with both hands as they left the group in the dust.  
  
Settling himself back in the seat as they turned onto the freeway, he felt a grin spread across his face.  
  
"That was fun."  
  
"You're so right Greg," Conrad steered them into the Fast lane. "Right as rain."  
  
It was about an hour later that Greg turned his head to say something to Shellie and found himself face to face with a Lizard.  
  
"AH!" He shouted as he reared back. Conrad looked at him.  
  
"What?" Greg raised a trembling finger to point at the lizard, who was hanging on to the headrest and backrest with it's claws. Conrad followed the finger. "Oh. That's Iggy, short for Einstein."  
  
"You have a Lizard for a pet." Greg said slowly. Conrad nodded. Despite the fact that he had always had an irrational fear of reptiles, Greg forced himself to relax. "Why am I not surprised?"  
  
For some reason, Conrad found that hilarious, and laughed for the next five minutes.  
  
Lita awoke with a start and looked out the window. The bus was traveling along a coastal highway. The sky was dark with Gray clouds, and the sea stretched out to the horizon. Seated as she was in the last row, she turned to look behind them. Nothing but road and trees and ocean. Most of the Students were asleep. The ones that weren't were talking quietly.  
  
Across the aisle from her, Amy looked up from her book and smiled. Lita dug a soda out of the cooler someone had smuggled aboard.  
  
"Want one?" Amy shook her head.  
  
"No. But thank you for offering."  
  
"Boring, aint it?" Amy closed the book.  
  
"I suppose it is." She said quietly. "I'm looking forward to the science facilities there."  
  
"Yeah. I hear the kitchen is something else. If it's food you can make it there.  
  
"Yes, and I'm sure Serena will love that." Lita clapped her hand over her mouth to muffle a giggle.  
  
"How much longer till we get there do you suppose?" She asked, when she had recovered. Amy glanced at her watch.  
  
"We've been on the road three hours already. We should be there soon." She opened her book again. Lita leaned back against the seat and took a drink.  
  
Frederick Myers, dean of discipline for Fugimyia Academy, made a note on his clipboard as the bus pulled up and began disgorging students. It was nearly Sunset. One by one, the students gave their names to the check-in clerk, picked up their bags and trudged off to the dorms. He leaned over the clerks shoulder and frowned. Three students still weren't here. He picked up the registration cards and went through them. Conrad Howard, Shellie Howard, and Greg Morgan.  
  
There was nothing worse then tardiness Myers thought as he lit his pipe, nothing at all. It was at that point that the car pulled in. It was dark black blue, a convertible. The Top was down. Two boys sat in the front, while a girl sat on top of the back of the backrest. Even in the dim light, he could see that her spiked hair was red and green. Her shirt was Tie-dyed and she wore a leather biker jacket and ripped blue jeans. She did a backwards somersault, walked around to the passenger side, leaned over and started lifting bags and suitcases out. The Passenger got out to help, while the driver, his brown hair tied back and leaning heavily on a cane, walked to the clerk's table. The other two hauled the suitcases and duffel bags to the sidewalk. Then they all gathered around the hood of the car to fill out the cards. Myers drifted closer to listen.  
  
"...My God. Conrad, we are going to be on the same floor of the same dorm hall." The Girl snapped her gum. "I go through enough crap just being your sister!"  
  
"Since when have you been through crap?" Retorted the ponytail.  
  
"The night you gave Snake O' Challahan a permanent case of the jitters."  
  
"I warned him not to grab that live wire. That was 500 watts in there."  
  
"You nearly killed him!"  
  
The Ponytail seemed completely confused by the girl's reaction.  
  
"And?" He said. The girl sighed noisily.  
  
"Um?" The second guy spoke up.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"I don't understand." The Girl sighed.  
  
"Conrad," She pointed at the ponytail. "Fried a gang leader's nervous system when he souped up a Harley as a favor."  
  
Conrad shrugged. "He asked, I gave him what he wanted."  
  
"You almost killed him!" The girl stomped up to the curb and lit a cigarette.  
  
Myers stepped forward.  
  
"This is a No Smoking Campus Young Lady." She looked at the pipe in his hand.  
  
"Uh-huh." She blew some smoke. "You gonna stand there with a lit pipe in your hand and tell me that this is a no smoking campus?" Myers glanced over at the two boys. The Ponytail was sitting on the car hood eating a candy bar. The other one was standing in the parking lot next to the curb with his hands in his pockets, looking back and forth, unsure of what to do.  
  
"As a matter of fact," Myers said with quiet authority, "As the Dean of Discipline at Fugimyia Academy, I am standing here with a lit pipe in my hand telling you that this is a no smoking campus." The Girl didn't even change expression. Instead, she dropped the cigarette to the ground and very slowly and purposefully, ground it out with her boot.  
  
"I would recommend you all get to your dorms." He said. "Classes start bright and early Monday morning. You have until then to make yourselves at home." Ponytail stepped up to the curb and picked up a backpack, a briefcase, and a duffel bag. Taking out a remote from somewhere, he pointed it at the car and pressed a button. The Top came up and latched into place as the windows rolled themselves up. He pressed another button, the headlights flashed twice, and there was a double beep.  
  
"I agree with the good dean. It is rather late." With that, he walked off to the dorms.  
  
Shellie Howard stepped off the elevator. The hallway was wide enough for three people standing side by side. Graffiti and artwork covered the walls. People sat outside the doors doing homework or socializing. Dear God, co-ed dorms. She looked down at her registration card. Isaki Hall, 7th floor, room 48. She swung her duffel into the gut of a passing student.  
  
"Hey! What's the big idea?" He glared at her.  
  
"Bite me dipwad." She shot back. "Show me where room forty eight is and you can go back to your miserable excuse for a life."  
  
"Forty-Eight?" He laughed. "You get to room with the Mouse."  
  
"The Mouse?"  
  
"Yep. Mary 'The Mouse' Mitchell. She's so timid she breaks into tears if the wind blows to hard." He pointed to her left. "End of the hall."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
Mary Mitchell stared at her exam book. Oh dear, she never should have tried for extra credit. She looked up as the door banged open and an apparition stood there. Spiked hair, leather jacket, torn jeans, boots. The Apparition snapped it's gum.  
  
"Yo. You the Mouse?" Mary nodded hesitantly. "Great. I'm Shellie." She walked in. The room was immaculate. Not a speck of dust or dirt. "Jeez girl, how long do you spend cleaning this rathole?" She dumped her bags on the couch. "Never mind. So what's to eat around here?" She walked to the kitchenette and started opening cabinets and drawers. Mary walked over to her. The dorms were rather unique in design. A central living area with kitchenette and then two bedrooms on opposite each other, each with it's own private bathroom, and shower/tub. There was a big screen TV in the central living area, but Mary had never used it.  
  
Shellie finished her inspection of the food supply. She had never seen so bland a food supply. Crackers, some fruit, a few veggies. She looked over at her new roomie. The Mouse was tall. She wore a baggy sweatshirt and sweat pants. Her brown hair was tied back and she wore glasses. She seemed to expect that she would get flattened or worse. Talk about your mismatches.  
  
On the other hand, maybe there was someone she could get along with under all that baggy crap.  
  
Conrad and Greg stood in the common area of their Dorm. a door to the left led to one of the bedrooms, a door on the right led to the other. Each with it's own private bath. That, and the Big Screen TV was the only luxuries granted to students.  
  
"Right or Left?" Greg looked at Conrad.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Which do you want? The bedroom on the right, or the one on the left?"  
  
"Uh, the one on the left I guess."  
  
"Excellent." Conrad scooped up his stuff and walked into his room. Greg sighed. He had wanted Adventure.  
  
Cafeteria, the Next Morning.  
  
Shellie set her tray down with a thunk.  
  
"Hi Shellie." Serena said, smiling. Shellie glowered. "Uh...Problem?"  
  
"Yeah. My roommate has a nickname." The look on Shellie's face could have passed for Cherylnoble.  
  
"Oh?" Serena was slowly backing away from her, a look of fear on her face.  
  
Student Parking Lot.  
  
Dean Myers smiled and nodded as the man next to him waved at the parking lot.  
  
"....look at this! Students having cars! They are here to learn, not drive around! Did you know that there is a rumor that one student actually owns a Sunboomer? It's outrageous!"  
  
And you wish you could have one, Myers thought as he glanced at the other Man's car in the next parking lot. Instead of voicing his thoughts, Myers said.  
  
"Yes Headmaster Falk. Outrageous indeed." Myers gaze slid to the Headmaster's car. At one point it had been a '75 Datsun 210. But the years had not been kind to it. Rust showed in some places and the paint was peeling off in others. Still, Falk's record spoke for his skill as both an Educator and top Electrical Engineer. Of course, Myers reflected dryly as his gaze slid to his own '84 Trans AM, his car wasn't much better.  
  
The headmaster opened his mouth to say something else, when a dark blue convertible, the top down, purred into the parking lot. Myers hid a smile when he saw it was the same car from last night. The Ponytailed driver got out. Myers was amused to see the Headmaster's face bristling with barely concealed wrath at the fact a student had a better car then he did.  
  
"Good Morning Dean." He said as he leaned over the backseat to retrieve something.  
  
"Indeed." Myers said Dryly. "And how do you like it here so far, Mister. . . Howard is it?"  
  
"Yes sir. Please, call me Conrad.." He came up with a paper bag and a terrarium. Myers took the opportunity that the morning sun offered to look him over. Conrad Howard stood at about five feet 10 inches. His weight was probably about one-thirty. He was wearing mirrored sunglasses so it was difficult to discern eye color. Caucasian Male. Pale Skin told Myers that he spent a lot of time indoors. His Hair was Brown and shaggy. The tip of the pony tail was probably just level with his shoulder blades. He was Handsome on the cute side, medium build and his face suggested a Welsh Ancestry.  
  
Next, Myers took a look at his clothes. A Black Denim Jacket over a Tourist's T-Shirt for the Empire State building. Blue Jeans and Hightops. He appeared to be evenly distributing his weight on both legs, although Myers saw a slight angle to his body which suggested the right leg was weaker then the left. Falk stepped forward.  
  
"Did you say your name was Conrad Howard?" Conrad nodded. "The Conrad Howard? Designer of the Electrical Bypass System?"  
  
A Nod. "Yes Sir." Conrad set the terrarium and paper bag down. Falk stepped forward, offering his hand.  
  
"I'm Christopher Falk, Headmaster of the Academy." Howard shook the proffered hand.  
  
"Falk...Doctor Falk? Of MIT? Sir, it is an Honor to meet you. Your Modular Current theory was the inspiration of the EPS. I had to alter it rather drastically I'm afraid though." Myers saw Falk's face redden ever so slightly as that statement. Conrad popped the hood. "Let me show you." The two fell into a highly technical discussion with Conrad doing most of the talking and Falk nodding as head as he listened, asking occasional questions. Myers however, was skilled at reading body language and saw something different. Falk was at a loss. He had no idea about half of what Howard was saying. It gnawed at him that Howard not only had a better car, but had altered his designs and then had the nerve to patent it.  
  
Myers had traveled all over the world in his career. Insomnia on a Night Flight had left him with time on his hands and he had read Falk's paper on Modular Current which had been a gift from an engineer friend. His hobby of Building Remote Control planes from scratch had given him some electrical knowledge, and he saw that Falk's design was good only in massive structures, such as Battleships and Aircraft carriers. He tuned his attention back to the conversation.  
  
Conrad he saw, had read the dean the same way and was deliberately being overly technical. Myers took a few steps away and lit his pipe, unable to shake the feeling that a storm was brewing.  
  
Charwar.....  
  
Bertie tugged at the collar of the high necked formal uniform and stood in the throne room, behind her, the assembled hosts and hounds and things she really didn't want to think about watched her.  
  
With a shimmer, Seekay, Lord of the Negaverse, her master, materialized on the raised platform.  
  
My loyal followers, I wish to announce that the Senshi have deserted Tokyo A hearty cheer went up, and Seekay let it go for several minutes, before finally raising a hand for silence. Bertie cheered as loud as anyone there, she had suffered defeat twice at the hands of those thrice be damned Sailor Senshi. Her hand tightened into a fist. She was looking forward to freezing them solid from the neck down and then, inch by inch, shattering them. A grim smile spread on her face and then she realized Seekay was standing right in front of her.  
  
Bertie....Perhaps you would like to tell me why my hall is now covered in ice? Startled, she looked around to discover that the room was iced over.  
  
"I apologize My Lord, I was fantasizing about what I would do to the Senshi....I'm afraid I got out of control." She bowed her head.  
  
And what was that Fantasy?  
  
"I was going to freeze them solid from the neck down and then shatter them inch by inch....while they still lived."  
  
Impressive. You are now my new Commander in Chief.  
  
"WHAT?!" Malachite roared. Skeet's hood turned ever so slightly, as though he was turning his head to look at Malachite. Malachite paled and then he stuck a finger in his ear and wiggled it. "Forgive me Master." He said. "I had something in my ear and couldn't hear you." He jerked his finger out, revealing a truly nice-sized ball of wax.  
  
Impressive. Bertie couldn't tell if Seekay was referring to the ball of wax or Malachite's bold faced lie in an attempt to save his skin. She knew what sparked it though, Malachite had seniority and she was being promoted over his head. You will be dealt with for your transgression later. Perhaps I will let Bertie practice the plans she has for the Sailor Senshi on you. He turned back to Bertie. Take a Squad to Earth. Specifically to Fujimya Academy, located on the North coast of Japan. The Senshi have moved there and I want them distracted. Rubius.  
  
Rubius appeared as Seekay spoke his name. "Yes Master?"  
  
Begin operation Red Diamond, and no screw-ups! There are only a few months left until The Lady arrives.  
  
"I beg for My Lord's forgiveness for my forwardness," said Rubius, executing a short half-bow," But are you sure that The Lady will be pleased with the gift? If she is as powerful as you say, might this not anger her instead of pleasing her?"  
  
You speak with wisdom Rubius. Unusual for one such as you. But this is not an attempt to please her, no. She expressed a desire to see it. So she see it she shall.  
  
"As you wish my Lord. I shall set out on my task immediately." Giving Seekay a full formal bow, Rubies vanished.  
  
Now then. Malachite, we shall discuss your transgression.  
  
Outside the Hall, the guard shifted his lance to a more comfortable position in the crook of his arm and completely ignored the screams of pain and terror coming from within.  
  
Saturday Afternoon.....  
  
Mina rolled her eyes. "Yes mom. I'm fine." She said, leaning against the pay phone, one hand absently twisting the diamond ring on her finger, a gift from David. "No, I haven't seen the Counselor yet. What? No. No bouts of depression. Yes, I'm taking the medication." She managed to bite back a snarl of annoyance. "Yes, I'll go see the Counselor Monday, as soon as class lets out. No, I don't think you need to call and ask if they want my psych tests. Mom, I'm not Maniac-Depressive. Yes, I agree, but that was right after the funeral." She sighed. "Fine. Send them the damn psych tests. Yes, I love you too Mom. Give my best to Dad." With that she hung up.  
  
"Moms." Lita said dryly from her perch across the sidewalk on a low wall. She hopped down. She was dressed in shorts, a Mandai Memorials team jersey, and sandals. "Yours almost makes me glad I don't have one any more."  
  
"Ha ha." Mina retorted sourly.  
  
Monday Morning, Ms Judith Efflick's English class.........  
  
Mina slipped into the seat next to Lita.  
  
"Morning." Lita said cheerfully. Mina just growled.  
  
"Sod off." She snapped. "Mornings are an evil invention by people who don't need sleep." With that, she folded her arms on the desk in front of her and dozed off.  
  
Conrad nodded to Lita and picked a seat in the second to last row. He set his cane on the floor and opened his binder.  
  
"Nice Cane." Conrad looked to his right. There sat a young man, not much older then he was. He had straight blond hair and signs of Acne. His blue eyes were bright.  
  
"Thanks." Conrad replied.  
  
"Don't mention it. Name's Rob. Rob Corbin."  
  
"Conrad Howard."  
  
Mina's head snapped up and she stared across the room to where Conrad was talking to a blond boy.  
  
"Oh shit."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Conrad's making friends." Mina's head dropped back to her arms. "We're all doomed."  
  
The teacher was an athletic woman, with large shoulders that suggested a swimmer. Her platinum blond hair was cut short, and her blue eyes were bright and expressive.  
  
"Good Morning class," She had a slight British accent "My name is Ms Efflick, and I shall be your jailer for the next hour." A ripple of laughter ran through out the classroom. "Now then. We will read four books. Huckleberry Finn, Catcher in the Rye, To kill a Mockingbird, and a novel of your choice. After each one I will expect a book report no more then two pages, double spaced on each one. There will also be a Mid-term and final report. We'll get into those later. I would also like to point out that I speak and understand German, French, Japanese, Chinese and Spanish. I also can make myself understood in Korean. So no snide comments in foreign languages." She picked up a clipboard.  
  
As you know, this Academy is structured on a basis similar to the American Universities. Academic standards however, are Japanese. This is a high school and you are expected to behave like high school students. The Academy is also designed to locate your hidden strengths and exploit them. So therefore, we will move around the room, and when I point to you , you tell me your name, what you are interested in, and what you like to be."  
  
So it began. Finally, she came to Conrad.  
  
"And your name is?"  
  
"Conrad Howard."  
  
"Nice to meet you Conrad. What are you interested in?"  
  
"Electrical engineering mainly. I like to tinker with stuff."  
  
"So you would like to be an Electrical Engineer?"  
  
"Actually, I would like a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering...." Ms Efflick began to move the next student when Conrad spoke up again. ".....So I can be a railroad hobo."  
  
The clipboard clattered to the floor.  
  
"A--A railroad hobo you say?" Conrad nodded, his face perfectly serious. Mina groaned under her breath and slouched in her seat. Efflick cleared her throat. "Uh...surely a career as a railroad hobo is far from the best use of your talents.  
  
"On the contrary." Conrad said, "It's perfect. Wide open spaces, you get to travel and meet all sorts of people. Plus it takes brains to be a railroad hobo. You have to memorize train schedules and routes, plus timing algorithms to hop into boxcars."  
  
"Yes.....well....." Efflick cleared her throat again and pointed at the boy at Conrad's right.  
  
"Robert J. Corbin." He said, then pointed at Conrad. "I'm gonna be a railroad hobo just like him." Then both boys folded their hands on the desks in front of them and gave the teacher big smiles.  
  
Lita leaned over to Mina.  
  
"He's kidding.....right?"  
  
"I can never tell." Mina said quietly, slouching further and then falling off her seat.  
  
After class, Mina caught up with Conrad.  
  
"What was all that about?!" She demanded.  
  
"What was what all about."  
  
"You know damn well what I'm talking about!" She jabbed a finger at the classroom. "Just what was all that crap about being a railroad hobo?"  
  
"I thought you said you couldn't tell when he was kidding." Said Lita.  
  
"Shaddup Lita." Mina snapped. She turned her attention back to Conrad. "Well?"  
  
"Oh Mina. Don't you know that you never get a second chance to make a first impression?" With that, he turned and walked away. Lita turned to Mina to find her banging her head against the wall saying something over and over. Lita leaned closer to listen.  
  
"We're doomed. We're doomed. We're doomed....."  
  
Gym Class......  
  
The gym teacher hailed from Texas. A broad shouldered man, he paced back and forth in front of the students.  
  
"Alright. Now here's what y'all gonna do, yer gonna jump in that there pool and do ten laps." He paused. "Now git!" The students all stood up and jumped in and proceeded to flounder about. Except for Mina, who struck out for the far end with swift and smooth strokes.  
  
"...And then, just because I could swim, he singled me out for extra laps! Its not my fault I can swim!" Mina swung a vicious kick at the wall. Amy watched her. "I'm from Southern California damnit! Swimming is one of the few ways to stay cool in the summer! "She swung another kick at the wall. "He's an ass!" She exclaimed, her kicks punctuating each word. "A stupid- stogie smoking-hasn't-shaven-in-three-days-ASS!"  
  
"Um...kicking the wall won't do you any good Mina. Perhaps you should talk to him."  
  
"I tried that. You know what he said?" Amy shook her head. Mina hitched up her pants and squinted as she launched into an impression of the teacher.  
  
"'Well now little lady. I can't rightly see what you're so mad about. Its like advanced math. The best students get more work.'" She straightened. "I'm not the best! I'm just the only one out of that whole sorry mess who can swim!" Amy chose not to point out the holes in Mina's logic.  
  
"Oh God, I miss David." Mina sagged against the wall and then slid down it. "He always knew how to make sense of this kind of stuff." She covered her eyes with her hands and sobbed.  
  
That evening, at 7:16 PM, Isaki Hall Lobby  
  
Mina, Amy, Raye, Lita, Serena, and several of their schoolmates, stared at the overlarge hammock in the middle of the room. The hammock was filled with mannequins dressed in various pieces of lingerie and in evocative positions. There also was one crash test dummy, and three blow up dolls, Marlin Monroe, Meryl Streep, and a young Yohko Ohno, respectively.  
  
Shellie snapped her gum, looking vaguely bored. She looked over at Conrad, who had somehow managed to look smug and innocent at the same time.  
  
"You forgot the dragon lady mannequin." Conrad shrugged.  
  
"The store didn't have any."  
  
"Like that ever stopped you." Shellie retorted acidly as she grabbed her roommate's sleeve and dragged her out.  
  
Mary let herself be dragged outside where Shellie lit up a cigarette, completely ignoring the No Smoking sign.  
  
"Um....there's a...no smoking sign." Mary said. Shellie looked up at the sign, then pulled a wrench and with a few minutes work, took down the sign and tossed it and the bolts into the bushes.  
  
"What no smoking sign?" Mary stared at the audacity of the act.  
  
"But there's.....I mean, there was.....which you......" Shellie looked at her expectantly.  
  
"No wonder they call you the Mouse." She scoffed. "I've met up with actual mice less timid." She paused to finish off the cigarette and grind it out with the toe of her boot.  
  
"You have?" Mary asked, curiosity overcoming her shyness.  
  
"Yeah. In the Subway system of New York." Shellie stuck her hands in her jacket and walked down the steps "I'm going into town to grab a movie. See ya, don't wait up!"  
  
The Scout craft materialized just before setting down on the hillside. Bertie studied the veiwscreen as the sensors took their readings.  
  
"Twentieth century's are the same everywhere." She observed, her eyes flickering over the running column of data scrolling up the side of the screen.  
  
"Not nessacarily true ma'am," one of the pilots ventured. "There's the inhabitants of dimension one twenty four who--GAACK!" He screeched as a collar of ice formed around his neck, just enough to put pressure on his windpipe. "--Are of no interest to any of us!" He gasped out. The collar vanished. Bertie resumed staring out the window. This attack must be handled carefully. Yes.  
  
Raye frowned as a familiar but unpleasant tingle rippled across the back of her neck. She raised her head from the book long enough to take a quick glance around the room and out the windows. Nothing. It was probably just her imagination.  
  
"Miss Hino!" The voice cracked across the room like a whip. "We are here to study, not to sightsee!" Raye bent her head back down to the book, silently seething at the old Englishwoman who was her math instructor. Raye looked at Shellie, who was one row away and a seat up. Shellie was slouched in her seat her math book standing up. Behind it, she was reading a tome of cyber- gangs. Raye focused her gaze on the book before her and tried to ignore the increasingly insistent tingle at the back of her neck.  
  
Mrs. Abigail Horton Harriwether stared down at the math test before her. The Howard girl's name was scribbled out across the top and the answers penned rapidly and without much thought. Still. Reluctantly, she picked up the answer key. The young tramp probably cheated her way through the test and she felt no surprise when all the answers proved to be correct. It was obvious then. The girl had cheated.  
  
The fact that all of her tests were written at her home and kept in a triple-locked archive in her computer which was kept in a safe making it all but impossible for anyone but her to get at them had no bearing on the conviction that Shellie Howard had quite obviously cheated. One only needed to look at the girl. Her hair was dyed, she wore clothes more suited to the life of a call girl, and her attitude was dreadful. She was obviously a cheater.  
  
Mrs. Harriwether huffed to herself, gave the girl a F and then wrote a scathing note underneath it before placing it in the pile of papers that was to be returned to the pack of monsters before her.  
  
Raye rubbed the back of her neck. The tingle had turned into a solid ache. Where was it? She risked another glance and saw a huge shadow at the door. There was no way she could transform in here. She would have to wait. Her hand tightened around the wand as she kept her face in an expression of studious concentration. But her eyes kept drifting to the door. What was it waiting for?  
  
The answer came moments later as the monster ripped through the door like a hot knife through butter. It was an ugly beast, at least eight feet tall, with a rounded head, no neck that could be easily seen, a large, muscular body with large claws at the end of its four fingered hands.  
  
The students screamed. Raye raised her wand, hoping the confusion would hide her as she opened her mouth to speak.  
  
"Sit down!" Mrs. Hariwether's voice, accompanied by the sound of the meter stick smacking against the blackboard served to quiet most of the students down and the rest soon followed. "Resume your places."  
  
"But its a monster!" A student called out.  
  
"Rubbish." Mrs. Harriwether snorted. "This is obviously a prank by some of the seniors."  
  
"Aroo?" The monster stared at her then raised his arm, claws gleaming. "Rahwrrr!"  
  
"Oh quit that you stupid child." She smacked his arm with the stick. "You may have fooled these students but you will not fool me with such an obviously fake costume. Now come along and we will go see Mr. Myers." She turned to the class. "I expect to be back in ten minutes and you all seated in those seats studying and that mess by the door cleaned up." She turned and walked out, the monster following.  
  
Raye pushed the transformation pen back into her shirt pocket before she joined the kids who were putting the desks back into place. Now she had seen everything.  
  
Myers looked up as one of the Math Instructors, Mrs. Harriwether, walked into his office, followed by a monster.  
  
"This student," She said, indicating the beast behind her. "Saw fit to interrupt my classroom, and break the door to do it. I leave the matter in your hands." With that, she turned and walked out. Myers looked up at the monstrosity before him.  
  
"I take it you have quite a tale to tell." The monster nodded. There was a pause. "You're not some student in disguise, are you?" Again the nod. "You're here to trash the school and kill some people, or are you here for a certain group of people in particular?" The Beast shrugged.  
  
"Rohr groop savanar." Somewhere, in the back of his mind, Myers was having trouble believing he was having this conversation. Maybe it was a dream.  
  
"I see. And who are these people?"  
  
"Soonshi."  
  
Soonshi? Senshi?  
  
"You're here to kill the Senshi?" It nodded. Myers gestured to the bench against the wall. "Would you like some coffee?"  
  
"Rrrroooo." It was at that moment that Conrad Howard walked by. Then he came by again and stopped. He wasn't staring, just watching. Then he walked forward and opened the door.  
  
"Good Afternoon sir." He looked at the monster. "Discipline problem?"  
  
A shrill whine split the air and Raye sat up straight. She was in her room, and the clock said it was time to get up. She looked around, making sure everything was in its place. She held her hand to her head. That was the last time she tried Serena's cooking before bedtime. Then with a heavy sigh, she got out of bed and ready for school.  
  
The air was sweet this morning, and Raye took a deep breath as she left the dorms and headed across campus to class.  
  
She was passing near the athletic field when she saw Conrad talking to one of the Gardeners. As She got nearer, she could see that the Gardener was huge. Then Conrad spotted her.  
  
"Hey Raye! Check out the new Gardener." The Gardener turned around to reveal that it was the Monster.  
  
"AH!" Raye sat up straight in her seat to find that she was sitting in her chair in Mrs. Hariwether's class, and everyone was staring at her. She looked down, there was a bit of drool on her math textbook. She must have fallen asleep. What a weird dream.  
  
"Miss Hino, report to Mister Myer's office." Raye sighed and stood, her face flushed with embarrassment."  
  
"Yes Ma'am"  
  
Myers looked at the note and then at her, his expression politely but firmly requesting an explanation.  
  
"I disrupted the class."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I fell asleep and woke up from a nightmare." Raye said quietly, her attention fastened on Myers' nameplate on his desk.  
  
"I see." His voice paused a moment and Raye sensed someone else enter the room. "Ah, thank you. Just set it down here on my desk." Myers said to the other person. Curious, Raye looked up and stared as she saw the monster, dressed in a receptionist's outfit, set a tray of tea down on the table.  
  
"Conrad, shut off the damn machine!" Lita looked down at Raye. Wires ran from sensor disks on her forehead to a machine perched on her night stand.  
  
Raye had been suffering from insomnia and had asked Conrad if he knew of a way to help her sleep. A few hours later, Conrad had shown up at her door with the device. When asked what it was, he said something about Alpha waves and sleep frequencies. When Mina demanded he say it in English. He told them it was to help Raye sleep. That had been three days ago and excuses were running out.  
  
"Why isn't it shutting off?"  
  
"It's on a timer."  
  
"Well where's the timer?" Conrad examined the machine.  
  
"I forgot to put one in."  
  
"You WHAT?!" Mina screeched, reaching for the lamp so that she might inflict intense bodily harm upon his person.  
  
"Come on Conrad." Lita said. "Didn't you put in a power switch?"  
  
"Well of course." He hit a button. "I had to turn the power on didn't I?" Mina stormed out and they could hear her kicking the couch and screaming about all the things she was going to do to Conrad.  
  
"I think she's upset." Serena observed.  
  
The next night.  
  
"...And the rain will continue to hammer Northern Japan until late tomorrow and possibly through the weekend with lows continuing in the high sixties until the middle of next week." Myers tilted his head as he walked into Isaki Hall. The Night manager, who had been listening to the radio, waved her hand in passing greeting. Pausing only to hang his coat up to dry, Myers headed for the lounge area.  
  
Word was that Howard was a closet insomniac and would spend hours in the lounge, playing his guitar or in one of the labs that were open all night to students desperate to finish their projects.  
  
Myers had already checked the labs  
  
He found him on the lower floor of the Lounge. He had stoked the fire in the fireplace and was seated in an overstuffed easy chair that had been dragged close to the fire.  
  
One leg was hooked over a chair arm and he was playing his electric guitar. An iguana was perched on top of the chair back. Conrad had plugged in headphones and was playing something. Myers sat down opposite him and waited.  
  
Finally, Conrad opened his eyes.  
  
"Rainbow Connection. I always get a kick out of it." He shifted the guitar to a more comfortable position and began idly picking at the strings. "So tell me, what brings the Dean of Discipline to Isaki Hall at 1 in the morning during a storm?"  
  
"You." Conrad said nothing. "I've been going over your record and I found a few things that...intrigue me."  
  
"Such as?" Conrad began plucking at the strings faster.  
  
"The Mental Aptitude Test you took when you were eleven, it's very intriguing.'  
  
"How so?"  
  
"Most people know better then to answer multiple choice with an essay question and vice versa. The answers were correct though."  
  
"Some people get those confused." Conrad looked to his playing. His fingers moving faster, playing something that was probably a song written for the Spanish Guitar.  
  
"Also, questions that even an idiot would get right, you got wrong."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Yes. I find it interesting that someone would make these mistakes, unless they had something to hide."  
  
"And what would that be?"  
  
"I re-tallied your score. If you got ninety-eight percent of all questions right, your IQ is, or close to, three hundred. Perhaps more."  
  
"So?"  
  
Myers leaned forward. "You deliberately threw the test, didn't you? You wanted to hide your real IQ and you knew that the scores were tallied by computer so that nobody would catch you until years later, when you would be firmly entrenched in the School system and it would be too late to move you to a school for people like you." Conrad's eyes seemed to go from blue to green and then black.  
  
"Assuming your right, why would I do something like that?"  
  
"That's what puzzled me. You obviously had a good reason for what you did. But what, what could make an eleven year old kid want to hide how brilliant he was? So I started delving into your background and I found out that your father believes that everyone should be well rounded and be skilled physically, mentally, and socially.  
  
That's what made it click. You had the physical and mental skills down, but not the social, and if you were moved to a Special School, you wouldn't have that. After all, you had a promised position at Sunboomer designing electrical and Computer systems for the 21st century on the next generation of Supercomputers. You would have to deal with people and you wouldn't get the social skills you needed to do that at some Special school. So you flubbed the test."  
  
"An amusing theory, and assuming it's true, why are you telling me this?"  
  
"Because your record also indicates you masterminded several incidents at past schools. Each incident is different, except the exploding toilets. That seems to be your trademark. Of course, there is no proof, just speculation."  
  
"Of Course." Conrad's voice was level and his face composed. There was no telling what he was thinking.  
  
"I run a tight ship Mr. Howard. Your secret is safe with me, but I don't want to catch you causing any incidents on my watch."  
  
"Oh don't worry, you won't"  
  
"Good, I'm glad we agree on the Rules."  
  
"Me too."  
  
Myers got up and left the lounge, as soon as he was out of sight, he darted up the back stairs to the upper floor of the Lounge. There he crouched and watched.  
  
Conrad set his guitar aside and coaxed Iggy down from his perch. Iggy looked up at him and Conrad could almost hear the words in his mind.  
  
"What was that all about?" Conrad considered for a moment, ever since Iggy had hatched, he and Conrad had a.....connection. Even though it was just body language on it the lizard's part, it spoke volumes to Conrad, and Iggy apparently understood what he was saying.  
  
The Iguana thumped his tail against his arm and glared at him.  
  
"Well?" Conrad looked down at the one being who truly understood him  
  
"The good dean challenged me. He bet that he could catch me red handed."  
  
Iggy flicked his tongue out.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"For the challenge I suspect. He's bored. This school is new and nobody wants to cause a ruckus, too caught up in school work. All the Troublemakers are carefully screened out, the poor man is going bored. Then here I am. Someone who trouble seems to follow."  
  
Iggy looked at the fireplace  
  
"It's a game then."  
  
"Yes, and one I'm only too happy to play."  
  
Iggy looked back at him.  
  
"What if he catches you?"  
  
"What if he does?"  
  
"Iggy looked back at the fire, his curiosity satisfied. Conrad studied the flames as well. He hoped he had read Myers right. He had never fully mastered the art of reading body language, so he wasn't a hundred percent sure. But he was pretty certain he was right. He hoped he was anyway.  
  
Conrad scratched his nose. He already had plenty of ideas. He mentally ran a finger down the list. Which one? No not that one, too complicated. Nope, not that one either. While the farm animals were readily available, he didn't have access to the equipment he needed.  
  
Best keep it simple.  
  
No, that one had been over used in Cartoons and he would need people and a few hours to pull it off.  
  
Hmmm, Yes. That one would do nicely, but he would need Shellie's help.  
  
Humming softly to himself, he set Iggy on his shoulder, picked up his guitar, and went off to find his sister.  
  
Myers woke up and staggered into the bathroom. What a night. He took look at himself in the mirror. A transvestite stared back at him. He was instantly wide awake. Good Lord! He looked himself over. Makeup, a wig, nice dress, he had on the whole nine yards! Myers sighed. He was pretty sure he even had the appropriate underclothes on. The Phone rang. He went to answer it.  
  
"This is Myers"  
  
"Uh Mr. Myers, Sir? This is Fredricks, night security. Um, we just got a report from the drama department head. Somebody got into the Wardrobe and took one evening gown, a wig, some perfume, and some of the makeup. They also took some women's underwear that were to be used as a prop in the next play."  
  
"What kind of Dress?"  
  
"Black Velvet with Satin trimming."  
  
"Tell Erin to come by my Room in about half an hour, I'll have the missing clothes and wig waiting."  
  
"She's already on her way there sir." Myers took a moment to compose himself.  
  
"How long ago did you speak to her?"  
  
"About two minutes ago." There was a knock on the door. That Had to be Erin.  
  
"She Just Arrived." Myers Hung up, took a deep breath and answered the Door. Erin Florence entered and he closed the door, turned and waited.  
  
Erin Florence was a Acting Coach and Talent Scout who in very high demand. She had been lured to the Academy by the promise of a king's ransom for her salary, the position of the Drama Department head, and complete autonomy to run her department as she saw fit. She and Myers often wound up in the same area. They had an on again, off again romance. But they were both too career-minded to settle down. On the other hand, neither of them were getting younger.  
  
Erin for her part said nothing. Just looked at him, trying very hard not to smile. Finally she walked up to him and took the wig off.  
  
"Fred, I had no idea." She was trying very hard not to laugh.  
  
"I assure you." He said stiffly. "This is not my usual choice of wardrobe."  
  
"No, I see you in more of a springtime motif. Something flowery and light." She giggled. "Fred, what are you doing in that?"  
  
"I woke up like this, and judging from the stuffy head I have, whoever did this gassed me before getting me into this." Erin simply sat him down and proceeded to get all the makeup off of him. Then she waited while he took off the dress although she had an absolute laughing fit when she saw the underwear.  
  
Afterwards, once they had dressed and left, the door opened again, to admit Conrad and Lita. Conrad snuck into the bathroom and opened up the mirror. Behind the mirror was a medicine cabinet, here, on a shelf was a high-tech, hi speed, palm-sized video camera. Conrad removed it, stopping the tape at the same time.  
  
"Did you get it?"  
  
"Think so. I hope we did anyway." Conrad said as he plugged up the hole that had been made so the camera could see out the one-way mirror they had installed.  
  
Myers wandered through the maze of tables in the cafeteria. Students were laughing and joking. Some had out newspapers and books.  
  
"Good Morning Dean Myers."  
  
"Good Morning Mr. Howard.  
  
"Excuse me for asking sir, but are you wearing makeup?" Instead of answering, he turned and moved on. Howard was behind this he was almost sure of it. Unfortunately, there was no clues, and he probably had an ironclad alibi. Something also told him that this affair was far from over. Howard still had one more card to play.  
  
The last card came at noon, when everyone had filed in for lunch. On a blank section of the wall was Myers, in full drag, larger then life. Across the top was a sign that read, "The Dean practices for his role as a cross dresser in the play "Little Shop of Horrors." Myers mentally fumed.  
  
Of course, the cafeteria staff would've heard or saw nothing. Howard stepped up next to him.  
  
"Wonder who did that?" He said, his face thoughtful.  
  
"First blood to you Mr. Howard." Myers murmured, then he turned to walk away. 


	6. Mirna

The office of Frederick Myers; Fugimya Academy administration building  
  
"I just want to know how he did it!" Myers seethed as he paced in his office.  
  
"Calm down Fred, or you'll give yourself a heart attack." Said Anita Blanding, his secretary. "What makes you so sure the Howard boy is responsible?"  
  
Who else could burn that message into the field only to have it erased by the time Chris got back?!"  
  
"Fred, I think you're being paranoid. He isn't the only prankster at this school."  
  
"No, but he's the most notorious, and as always, I can't prove he did it."  
  
"No I suppose you can't." She was silent for a while. "Fred?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Do you suppose the sky really is green and we're all color-blind?" The look Myers gave her could have melted lead.  
  
It wasn't Mina Anio's reaction that surprised her friends and teammates so much as the savagery of it.  
  
In fact, the only thing keeping the blond junior from killing her opponent was the grip of the tall brown haired girl who was standing behind her, her hands on each of Mina's biceps. It easily looked as though the brown haired one was having no trouble restraining the angry Miss Anio. But a closer look revealed that Mina's captor was straining and was fighting a losing battle.  
  
"LET ME GO! DAMN YOU!" Mina shrieked, her blue eyes wild. "LET ME GO LITA OR I SWEAR I'LL BEAT THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF YOU!" Lita tightened her grip.  
  
"Calm down Mina." She said for what must have been the fiftieth time. In the back of her mind, she could not help noting that the scene on the soccer field had been much different barely a minute before.  
  
The Score had been tied forty to forty with barely a minute left to go before the first game of the school season between Fugimya Academy and their opponent, Kyoto High School was over. Lita Kino, goalie for the Fugimya Academy soccer team looked over at her friend Mina.  
  
"Quite the game huh?" She asked as she pushed her sweat matted hair out of her eyes.  
  
"Yep." replied the blond haired girl as she moved into position.  
  
Even afterwards, Lita couldn't be sure how it happened towards the end. The ball flew into play, the opposing team got control and passed it around the defense while the rest broke through the line.  
  
With most of her teammates charging after the ball and Kyoto high in control and coming down the field fast. Lita set herself to meet the inevitable power kick that would send the ball hurtling towards her.  
  
During the game they had discovered that Kyoto had a predictable but impressive bag of tricks. This one had kept them high in the district standings.  
  
On paper it was simple. Kyoto got control of the ball and maneuvered it around the defensive line while their offense, made up of the biggest team members, rushed the defensive line. Once they broke through, the fastest one got the ball and ran like hell for the goal. To counter, all Fugimya had to do, was prevent the ball from getting around the defensive line which would effectively run out the clock and then they could simply put the ball into Kyto's goal in overtime using their own tactics against them  
  
Of course, that was on paper, and as any man or woman who has ever fought in a military campaign can tell you, what happened on paper had a stubborn tendency never to adhere to real life.  
  
What had actually happened was more akin to a football game then soccer.  
  
Fugimya's coach had told his team to watch for this tactic and when they brought it out, to follow the ball. What they hadn't expected was for the girl with the ball to kick it over her head to her teammate behind her who then kicked the width of the field to whoever was down there.  
  
It had been completely on the spur of the moment and it worked. By the time Fugimya had figured out where the ball went, it had been kicked back to the center of the field and Kyto's fastest runner, a girl named Kyione, had the ball and was driving it towards Lita.  
  
That was where things got blurry.  
  
Running hard behind Kyione was the best, most popular athlete at Kyoto, a tall, curvaceous raven haired girl named Ayeka. Her reputation was that she was an arrogant bitch more concerned with her popularity then actual schoolwork.  
  
As Lita would later tell the police, it happened something like this:  
  
Kiyone approached the goal with Ayeka close behind.  
  
Kiyone feinted right just long enough to force Lita to commit to a lunge for the ball before dodging left.  
  
Ayeka approached the ball and Mina rushed her in order to block the kick accidentally putting her hand under the other girl's chin and pushing up.  
  
Instinctively, Ayeka punched back as the ball got tangled up in their feet. Both girls fell as the buzzer sounded signaling the end of the game.  
  
As the girls got to their feet, Aykea started insulting Mina, calling her names and insulting her looks, clothes and ancestry  
  
Mina had returned it.  
  
That's when it got ugly.  
  
Spurred on by a girl who had a cousin in Tokyo, Ayeka insulted the one thing Mina held dear. She insulted David Jones.  
  
As the police would later learn, David was Mina's boyfriend. They had loved each other deeply and when he fell off of a cliff it had all but shattered her sanity. Since then, Mina had been on special medication to control her depression and had undergone a week of therapy.  
  
The only reason she was on the Soccer team was that the Academy shrink had thought she might benefit from competitive sports. She had been too. Physical activity had been doing wonders for her, until Ayeka committed the unforgivable sin. She insulted the closest thing to Mina's heart.  
  
Mina had flown into a rage and viciously attacked her, her fists flying as she screamed incomprehensible insults and accusations.  
  
Aykea had a black eye and a cut and swollen lip by the time Lita had grabbed Mina and hauled her back.  
  
Now that we're all up to speed, lets move on.  
  
"LITA! LET ME GO NOW OR I SWEAR TO GOD I'LL BEAT YOUR FACE IN SO DEEP YOU'LL HAVE TO WALK BACKWARDS JUST TO SEE!" Mina's eyes were wild and spittle flew from her mouth. She wasn't even speaking Japanese anymore, but her native english. "DAMNIT! LET GO!" Mina twisted out of her friends grip and launched into Ayeka.  
  
Lita rushed into help when a fist flew into her range of vision and hit her head. Everything went black.  
  
She awoke on a bed to find Serena sitting at her bedside eating a bag of cookies.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"You got punched in the head. How are you feeling?"  
  
"Thirsty." Serena handed her a water bottle.  
  
"Thanks." Cold sweet water flowed down her throat. "Where's Mina?" Serena pointed. Following the finger, Lita could see her friend lying in a bed, an IV stuck in her arm and strapped down.  
  
"She laid out two paramedics before they could get a sedative into her." Serena said, a chuckle in her voice despite the seriousness of her statement.  
  
"Is she gonna be arrested?"  
  
"Nope, and you can thank Raye and Amy for that. They talked Kyoto into not pressing charges if Fugimya took Mina off the team."  
  
"Damnit." Lita said, shaking her head. "She was doing so well too." Serena nodded agreement.  
  
At that point, a man she could only assume to be a doctor walked in.  
  
"Ah, I see one of our patients is awake." He said with a smile. "How are you feeling?"  
  
"Worn out mostly, like I got a bad night's sleep." She admitted. He nodded as he planted a stethoscope against her back.  
  
"Breathe in. Well that's normal, get a full nights sleep and take it easy for a few days and you should be right as rain. Breathe out slowly." She did as he instructed.  
  
"What about my friend?"  
  
"Heh. She'll be okay once she wakes up. Breathe in. She's on a light sedative for a few hours. Breathe out."  
  
"Why the straps?"  
  
"Breathe in. Standard procedure for violent patients. Breathe out."  
  
"But she's not violent." Lita said, "Well not usually."  
  
"Breathe in. Oh? Is that right? Breathe out."  
  
"Yeah. Her boyfriend got killed when he fell off a cliff. They were really close."  
  
"I see." He said as a nurse came in and began fastening a blood pressure cuff around her arm. "So she's like that whenever someone mentions him?"  
  
"Usually she just breaks into tears."  
  
"Usually." Lita nodded.  
  
"But the other girl insulted David and his memory and the knowledge he'd want her to go on is the only thing keeping her from going bananas and trying to follow him to wherever he is now."  
  
Charwar...  
  
Bertie kneeled before Seekay. The entire host of the Negaverses and the Black Moons was assembled this day and she could feel their presence at her back. Her ears picked up mumbling and hushed conversation. She fought down the urge to turn around and use her powers to push them back.  
  
Rubius. Report  
  
"We have done as you commanded us Master. We have started at the Southmost tip of the Island and worked our way Northward. Already, the slaves are sorting the two tons we have collected and we should have to go no further then Tokyo to find what we need."  
  
Excellent. Bertie. Report.  
  
"We have landed and our scouting remotes have completed mapping the school and the surrounding terrain. We need forty-eight more hours to program our implants and mapping systems with the data and then we can take the school and crush the Senshi in their beds."  
  
No. I want to draw the Crystal Knight out into the open. The School is not to be attacked except on my specific orders.He paused for a moment. Await a time when they have all left the school. Attack them while they are at their destination and pay close attention to the Crystal Knight's tactics. I want to know who he is!  
  
"Yes Master." The words had barely left her lips when Seekay vanished. Bertie stood, straightening her tunic. "Sergeant." A being that could only be described as the result of an unholy union between a human and a warthog strode out of the crowd.  
  
A Porcine. They made up the bulk of Seekay's ground troops and were very effective and precise killers, provided you explained to them exactly what you wanted them to do. They weren't very bright, but they did what they were told.  
  
Bertie made a gesture and a holographic terrain map of Fugimya academy and the surrounding terrain appeared between them.  
  
She tapped a spot on the map that lay just a kilometer outside the school grounds. "Select a droid that can function well in this terrain and a squad of seasoned forest veterans. Go here and await my instructions which will tell you where and when to attack. When you do, you will attack only the Sailor Senshi unless the humans fight back. If they do, you can do whatever you want to them, but only to the ones who attack you.  
  
"While you are waiting you are to feed on only plants and animals and under no circumstances are you to get near a human until the time comes to attack. If contact with a human or humans is impossible, capture them alive and contact me." The Porcine nodded and waddled off.  
  
"Getting soft in your old age Bertie?" Rubius's voice said behind her.  
  
"I'm not going to draw any unessacary attention to ourselves. You know as well as I do that if left on their own, the Porcines would destroy Japan.  
  
"The Master has plans for that place and I for one, would like to be alive to see the day he rules this world instead of being dead or tortured because I let the Porcines run loose." With that, she warped the fabric of space-time and teleported back to her ship leaving Rubius to stare at the terrain map and lost in thought.  
  
"...So the farmer says, 'Nope. Ya got it all wrong there sheriff. See, this here is the pig and that's my wife!'" Serena and Lita both burst into laughter.  
  
"Oh Bhudda." Lita said, wiping her eyes. "Serena, where did you hear that?"  
  
"Darien told it to me. Said he read it on the net."  
  
"Its found at useless jokes dot com." Serena and Lita looked up. Conrad stood at the door. Serena stood up.  
  
"I have to get going Lita. I'll be back later. Kay?" She waved and ran out. Conrad came in and sat in the seat Serena had vacated.  
  
"I heard about what happened at the game." His voice was laced with concern. "Are you alright?"  
  
"Nothing a good nights sleep and a few days of R and R won't cure." She managed a wan smile.  
  
"That's good." He paused. "I was worried about you."  
  
"You were?" He nodded, and hesitantly laid his hand on hers.  
  
"Yeah. I was." They spent the rest of the time in silence, each gazing into each other's eyes, and thinking their own private thoughts.  
  
When Serena returned, she found them both asleep, his hand curled gently around hers.  
  
Air seared Mina's lungs as she ran. But no matter how hard she ran, the safety of the portal to Earth kept moving back, always staying just out of her reach.  
  
Behind her, the shadow. The shadow with the red eyes kept coming, no matter what she threw in its path, it just kept coming.  
  
"Get back!" She screamed at it. "For God's Sake, Get Back!" The portal was suddenly replaced by a wall.  
  
She was trapped.  
  
She spun, planting her back against the wall as the shadow loomed in front of her.  
  
You are mine Mina Anio, MINE! The shadow's voice was cold and metallic.  
  
"No!" She cried, pushing herself back against the wall, her eyes darting about for something, anything, she could use to defend herself with. Then she saw the wheelchair. She ran for it, feeling the cold wind of the shadow as it lunged for her. She grabbed the wheelchair and hurled it at the shadow with all the strength she had. It caught it with a hand made of black metal.  
  
A wheelchair? You think to beat me with an aid for the WEAK? It ripped it apart. You have nowhere left to go Mina. It lunged for her and Mina screamed.  
  
The blackness of the shadow was replaced with the dimly lit ceiling as Mina's body jerked upright against something holding her down. She looked around as panic raged through her system.  
  
A nurse appeared in her field of vision and held her down, murmuring soothing words.  
  
"Wha-where?"  
  
"You're at Kyoto General."  
  
"Kyoto?" Then memory flooded back to her. "Am I going to be arrested?"  
  
"No. And you can thank Raye and Amy for that. But you have been banned from all competitive sports." Conrad stood in the doorway. "Actually, I'm not sure if you were in any real danger of being arrested."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"I've been talking to students and teachers and it seems Miss Maboshi, that's who you beat to a pulp by the way, was getting far to big for her britches. Even her parents secretly approved I think. They made some noise, but backed off short of demanding your head."  
  
"This world is way too screwed up." Mina said as she looked at her restraints. "Hey, can I get out of these?" The nurse hesitated a moment and then released the straps.  
  
Mina sat up, rubbing her wrists where the straps had been cutting into her skin, then she noticed the IV needle. "Hey, what's this?"  
  
"I believe it known by its more common name, Prozac."  
  
"Prozac?" Conrad nodded.  
  
"Prozac." Conrad said, nodding sagely.  
  
Fugimya Academy, three days later, 7 am.  
  
Rob looked over at Conrad as some of the students carefully spread the white, milk like liquid all over the floor of the rec room that was Isaki Hall's top two floors.  
  
"What did you say that stuff was again?"  
  
"I'm calling it Insta-Ice. By tomorrow morning, we will have ice across the floor, and up the stairs and on the upper floor."  
  
"Its insane. Its crazy. Its not exactly instant, is it?" Conrad ignored that.  
  
"It will work." Conrad said thinking back to this morning when had been watching his cereal float in milk and it occurred to him that if one could combine liquid nitrogen and Dry Ice, then add a third substance to keep the mixture stable, then he would have an ice-like substance that would go from liquid, to solid and then to gas.  
  
It had taken him most of the day to come up with the third substance, but he had done it and now his creation was being applied towards the best thing to use it for. A skating party.  
  
Breakfast, 8am  
  
Lita sat down at the table the Senshi shared for their meals. Serena had her nose buried in the paper, Mina was reading, Raye was finishing off her math homework, and Amy was calmly breakfasting on some kind of wheat cereal.  
  
"Hey. Check this out." Serena said and began reading aloud. "They've been called the rivals of the Kennedy clan, Modern day Montagues and Capulets. The Moooresdvelts and Kinocans, long known in the American East Coast high social circles for their long standing cold war, admitted today that Mooresdvelt Patriarch Sir Larry Howard Mooresdvelt and Kinocan Matriarch Abigail Henry Kinocan are both dying of bone marrow cancer and their life expectancy is being counted in months, if not weeks." Serena closed the paper, her face slightly scared. Her great-grandmother, then nearly six months pregnant. had been on the outer edges of Hiroshima when the Americans had dropped the bomb in World War Two. She had died only a few years later. Her children hadn't been born with it, but since then, the word cancer held a special terror for the Tuzinko Family. "Cancer..." She shuddered and folded up the paper, setting it aside.  
  
"Goody. I hope it hurts." Everyone looked at Lita.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Those families." Lita waved her hand at the paper. "I hope they go out screaming in pain."  
  
"Lita, that's a horrible thing to wish on someone." Amy said.  
  
"No. Its what they deserve. " Lita said as she got up and walked away.  
  
History class........  
  
"...Any questions?. Good. Now before dismissal, I want to remind all of you that the buses for the field trip to the Himinyagi Archeological site tomorrow are leaving at Seven AM sharp. So make sure you're out at the boarding point by Six Forty-Five." The bell clanged. "And remember, I want to see a full report on what you learn from the visit tomorrow on my desk by six pm Saturday!" But the teacher's words were lost as the students flooded out the door en masse.  
  
"I'm really looking forward to the trip tomorrow." Amy said as she, Conrad, Lita, and Mina awaited the elevator that would whisk them up to their dorm floor. " I hear they have some fascinating samples of jade from feudal times." The doors pinged open and the four teenagers filed in.  
  
"I got it." Conrad said, hitting the buttons. The ride up was spent mostly in silence.  
  
"Hey!" Mina exclaimed realizing that the elevator had passed their floor. "What the hell is going on?" She pushed Conrad aside and checked the controls. Okay, Conrad." She said turning around. "Explain why--Why are you taking off your shoes?" Conrad flashed her a smile.  
  
"I'm going skating."  
  
"Skating?" Behind her, the doors slid open, revealing that the rec room had been coated in ice. Students were gliding around, and riding sleds down the staircase. Conrad took a running start and slid out across the ice.  
  
"Come on!" He called. "Lets go skating!" Mina shut her jaw as Lita sprang forward and slid across the ice to join Conrad.  
  
"Conrad!" Rob skidded up beside him. "This ice turned out so great!" He wrapped an arm around Conrad's shoulders. "How did you do it?"  
  
"Oh sure." Conrad said, raising his eyes skyward in an expression of mock exasperation. "I tell you. You tell somebody else," He pushed off Rob and glided back, raising his arms in the air as he braked and did a three- sixty. "and before you know it, we're in the middle of another Ice Age!" He skated off.  
  
"What's all this supposed to be?" Making his way across the ice was the Resident manager of the seventh floor, a tall nerdish looking senior. "I demand someone answer me!" Conrad skidded back up. The Senior looked at him. "I should have known. What's all this?"  
  
"This?" Conrad pointed at the floor." This is ice. This is what happens to water when it gets too cold." He turned to the others and pointed at the senior. "This? This is Bob. This what happens when sexually frustrated squirrels marry." He took off again.  
  
"Ha ha." Bob said, uttering the statement used only by those with no sense of humor who can't come up with any kind of reply. "Who's going to clean it up?" He demanded.  
  
"You won't have to." Conrad said, coming to a stop. "Its going to go from solid form directly to gas." He paused and then crouched and tapped the ice with a pen. "I think." He muttered.  
  
"Wow." Bob said, missing Conrad's last two words. "What is it?"  
  
"Its very rare and very unstable." Rob said.  
  
"Just like you." Conrad added. Bob ignored that.  
  
"You're sure it'll go from solid form directly to gas?" He asked, more concerned about having to justify a cleaning bill then the water damage. Conrad nodded.  
  
"Sure." He paused and gave the ice a thoughtful look. "Unless it explodes first."  
  
"Ex-Explode?" Bob began inching back towards the elevator, trying to make it look casual. "Well as long as you're sure it will turn into gas, I'll just be on my way." Conrad was still staring down at the ice.  
  
"You know," He said in a thoughtful tone. "if this was to explode, then it would probably vaporize this entire floor." Bob stopped trying to be casual and all but raced for the door, only to get knocked over by a passing sled.  
  
"Uh, Conrad?" Mina ventured.  
  
"Hm?"  
  
"You were just kidding about this stuff exploding weren't you?" She asked, as the ice began to turn into gas. "Conrad?"  
  
"Alright, I'll see your four and raise you two." Lita slapped her cards down on the TV tray, revealing a four of a kind. "Call." Rob had a small two pair, Mina a three of a kind, Conrad a full house.  
  
"How do you do it? Mina asked, throwing her cards down on the table. Conrad shrugged and gave no answer. He just, as always, smiled.  
  
Serena sat back on her heels and wiped some sweat from her brow. The fall afternoon sun beat down on the site, a small valley partially excavated from hardened lava and she was very much aware of the volcano rising over the site like a small tower.  
  
"What are we doing this for again?" Lita, wearing a cap and sunglasses, looked up from where she was carefully excavating a shard of pottery.  
  
"Extra Credit." She said, removing her cap and wiping the sweat from her eyes.  
  
"I can do without this kind of credit." Serena muttered and stood, heading for the central tent.  
  
It was cool inside the central tent where Amy, Conrad, and Dr. Rei Muzino, the head of the dig, were gathered around the computer used to catalog the items unearthed.  
  
"...what about routing around the OS?"  
  
"What?"  
  
From there, the conversation degenerated into a highly technical argument over "software pathways" and "partition dividers".  
  
Serena, understanding maybe one word out of twenty, shook her head and left the tent.  
  
She paused to take a drink of water and then set off across the site.  
  
The purpose of the dig, according to Dr. Muzino, was to excavate the castle of Dynimo Hiroginzhou Himinyagi, a forward thinking warlord from feudal Japan who built his castle up against a mountain then burrowed into it, intent on using the caves for storage and cover should he be attacked.  
  
Sadly, while digging a new cave, workers plowed into a lava tube and triggered a river of lava that filled up the valley. Only a few serfs and soldiers escaped to tell the tale. The Dynimo had perished.  
  
Pushing the facts out of her mind, Serena ducked to get into the castle temple, where she found Raye carefully cleaning something.  
  
"Hey Raye, whatcha doin?"  
  
"Be careful!" Raye barked. "You almost stepped in my work area." Serena carefully repositioned her foot.  
  
"Sorry." Raye gave her an apologetic look.  
  
"Never mind. Come take a look at this." She held up what looked like a flat piece of stone, slightly bent.  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"Its a stone lantern. When a Samurai took a life, he carved a stone lantern in atonement."  
  
"I thought Samurai committed Hari-Kari for atonement." Raye shook her head.  
  
"Only when they had been seriously dishonored."  
  
"Oh." Serena said, making a face.  
  
"Hey Guys." Mina said, ducking into the doorway. "What's up?" She managed a wan smile at them, but her eyes remained dead with emotional pain.  
  
"Stone lanterns." Serena said, grinning.  
  
"Yeah." Raye said, and held out the stone piece. Mina took it.  
  
"Damn. Its heavy--" She broke off as something on the stone caught her eye. "Raye? Lend me the brush." Raye handed over the brush and Mina began dusting off one specific spot. Her eyes actually showing expression again. "Oh my..." She said softly, and then blew hard.  
  
"What is it Mina?" Serena asked. "What did you find?" Mina said nothing. Just stared.  
  
"Mina?" Raye asked.  
  
"Hand me your transformation pen." Mina's voice was strangled. Raye blinked but handed over the small cylinder topped with an ornate crest. Mina glanced from the pen to the stone and back several times before handing the pen back to Raye.  
  
"Mina?" Serena's voice was soft. "What is it?" Mina didn't answer, but turned the stone to face them. There, carved into the stone's surface was the symbol of Mars, backed by the crescent moon sigil that was Serena's own.  
  
"Interesting." Rei Muzino, a tall, slim woman, with black hair and a studious expression examined the stone piece. "Iwo!" She called over her shoulder. "We have another one!"  
  
"Another one?" Conrad's voice carried a hint of curiosity, but Mina knew him well enough to see his eyes light with intense interest. Dr. Muzino nodded.  
  
"Hai." She led the way to the back of the tent to where three other items sat. Each was another fragment of stone, each with a different symbol on it. But all the symbols were backed by a crescent moon.  
  
"Weird." Mina's voice was deceptively level.  
  
"Hai." Muzino said. "Its very strange, and a mystery. But these are the only things we've found so far."  
  
"Perhaps the answers are still buried under the lava." Conrad said.  
  
"That's our hope." Muzino said. "All we can do is--She broke off as the tent shook from the shockwave of an explosion.  
  
"What was that?" Muzino cried, grabbing the table, trying to steady it so the priceless artifacts wouldn't fall over and break. "Are we under attack?"  
  
"Who would attack a dig site?" Her assistant yelled.  
  
"I don't know!" She yelled back. "Conrad, Amy, you and your friends had better stay here." There was no answer. "Conrad? Amy?" The students were gone.  
  
Conrad watched Mina and her friends take off, a bemused expression on his face.  
  
But the moment they were out of sight, the bemused expression vanished and he turned and headed into a nearby cave.  
  
It was a short shallow cave, more like a long narrow depression in the side of the valley then a cave, but it was out of sight and that's exactly what he needed. Smirking, he gripped his cane and slammed the glass orb against a rock.  
  
Lightning flashed, and once more, the Moon Kingdom's Champion walked the Earth.  
  
Leaping over a rock, the Senshi found themselves confronting a small army of brutish looking half man half warthog soldiers. Floating in the air behind them, Bertie and a female youma stood, watching as the soldiers fired randomly across the dig site.  
  
"What are those things?" Jupiter demanded.  
  
"They appear to be descended from an animal similar to an Earth Warthog and then genetically enhanced for combat." Mercury said, working the scanning equipment built into her armor.  
  
"You mean there's some planet out there full of those things?"  
  
"More likely another earth." Mercury said. "We are dealing with dimensional travelers."  
  
"Very good., Mercury." Bertie said. "Meet the Porcines. The Master's shock troops and this," She indicated the youma. "is Speedra."  
  
"How nice of them to make introductions." Mercury snarled. "ICE SPEAR" She flung her hand forward, sending the spear hurtling towards it's target. Bertie batted it aside.  
  
"Speedra. Porcines. Attack!"  
  
She awoke. The bad place was gone. She was free and there was no sign of the mean man that had put her there. She needed to be inside someone or the Black would claim her. She couldn't be claimed by the Black. The Black would make her Go Away. She didn't want to Go Away. She must find someone.  
  
Five very battered Senshi watched as the last Porcine fell.  
  
"I can't move anymore." Sailor Moon said in a tired whisper. Jupiter nodded.  
  
"My shoulder is killin me."  
  
"Duck!" Mercury shrieked, shoving Sailor Moon aside as wind howled through where she had been standing. Speedra cackled as she skidded to a stop and turned, confronting her prey.  
  
"Speedra." She hissed, drawing the phrase out.  
  
"Speedra needs a new vocabulary." Said a new voice.  
  
"Speedra?" said the youma looking around questioningly as the owner of the voice, a figure in red and black armor landed, lance in hand. "Speedra!" The youma shouted and launched itself at the Knight, talons outstretched.  
  
The next few minutes was like a bullfight as Speedra and the Knight tested his reflexes against her speed.  
  
"Speedra." The youma snarled.  
  
"Hello." chirped a new voice.  
  
"Speedra?" Both combatants turned to look at the being standing there. She was just under a meter tall, with spiky purple hair and blue skin. Her eyes were pale pink and very large. She wore what appeared to be a robe of many layers and her six fingered hands were long fingered.  
  
"And you would be...."  
  
"Mirna." She said and smiled up at him as a child might. "What are you doing?"  
  
"Punishing this bad person." For reasons he was unable to fathom, the Knight was positive he was dealing with some sort of child.  
  
"Speedra!" The youma howled, shoving him away and lunging for the child.  
  
"No!" Then Knight reached forward, attempting to stop her, but his hands closed on empty air.  
  
"Bad lady." Mirna stepped aside, letting the youma collide with an anvil. "Bad Lady go away." Speedra suddenly found herself tied to a rocket.  
  
"Speedra? Speedra!" She howled, her words lost as the engine ignited, launching her into the air. Mirna beamed at the knight.  
  
"Bad Lady all gone." She beamed. "Bye Bye." Then she walked away. Curious. The knight thought, and then put such thoughts away. He would have to change back before the girls found him.  
  
"Hold it right there buster." He turned to find the Senshi confronting him. Blast! He had forgotten they were there.  
  
The jets roared, and he rose into the air. But Sailor Moon was ready for him.  
  
"Cosmic Moon Power!" The white light slammed into him, rocking his systems. Alarms howled in his head as the field dampers fought against an energy they had no way of dealing with and he fell to earth.  
  
When his optical systems came back on line, he found them gathered around him. Mercury had an Ice Spear in each hand, Fire crackled around Mars', and lighting arced up and down Jupiter's arms, concentrated in her fists.  
  
"Who are you?" Jupiter demanded.  
  
"Yeah." The others chimed in.  
  
"That is classified information." The Knight replied, starting to sit up. Jupiter calmly planted her foot on his chest and pushed him back down.  
  
"We don't really give a damn." She said quietly, holding her hand over his eye plate. "You've got something that belonged to a friend of ours and we are extremely interested in how you acquired it." Tiny bolts leapt off her fingers, licking at the red metal of his helmet.  
  
"In all honesty Miss Kino, I'm at a loss of how to explain it myself." Lita drew back, startled. It was enough for the knight as he lunged forward, shoving her off him as he launched himself into the air.  
  
"Cosmic Moon Power!" The light hit him again.  
  
"Ahhh!" He hit the ground and white light began to snake around the edges of his vision. No.  
  
"Armor shutting down. Power drained." The computer informed him. NO! Not now!  
  
"The Senshi watched, half in horror, half astonishment as the knight was consumed in white light. White light that slowly faded away as it moved up his body to his outstretched right arm, where it reformed into a cane topped with a glass orb.  
  
"Conrad." Mina snarled, clenching her fists as she watched from her place of concealment.  
  
Seekay stood immobile, watching as the strange child defeated Speedra. Beside him, Bertie also watched, her arms folded across her chest.  
  
Mirna.... Seekay breathed and turned away from the veiwing crystal.  
  
"Mirna?" Berite asked.  
  
A member of a race of dimensional beings who wield vast power. Fortunulty, they can only do it on a small scale and how they do it is shaped by the subconious of their host. Seekay was silent for a moment. Mirna is child, that makes her useful. Another pause. In one week's time, Malachite and a few Black Moon droids are to launch an attack on Tokyo. Since only the Inners are at the school, one may assume the Outers and their allies are covering Tokyo. When things get to hot, Pluto or Nephrite will undoubtedly be dispatched to bring the Inner Senshi back with him. Mirna will do the rest. Bertie nodded and saluted before vanishing.  
  
"How long Conrad? How long?" Mina turned on her heel, driven by cold fury and a touch of icy fear.  
  
"Since David's Death." Conrad walked over to his computer and inserted a CD- ROM into the drive. "I want you to see something." The Senshi gathered around. Conrad's fingers danced on the keyboard and David suddenly appeared in a window on the screen.  
  
"Hey Conrad. I'm not sure how much you've seen before this so bear with me since there's a message at the end of this for a special group of friends." He paused and ran a hand through his hair. "Okay. You've heard about these Senshi in Japan right? Well they're real, and Mina is one of them. Yes. That Mina. There's a whole story that goes along with that but I won't bore you with it, its all on the rest of the stuff I sent you. The reason I'm sharing this with you is that the Senshi have been captured by a nut named the Black Lady. I'm off to rescue them but I've got this creepy feeling I won't be coming back. What I've sent you is everything I have on the Senshi and their equipment. Schematics, psyche profiles, everything. There's another reason as well. If, for any reason Dad has to leave, like because I died, your dad will be sent as his replacement, that means Aunt Mary, Shelly and you will get dragged along. When you get here, I want you to show this to the Senshi, and then I want you to help them in any way shape or form you can."  
  
He paused and took a deep breath. "What I'm about to say is for the Senshi. Serena, you have the potential in you to great things, not just what you are destined to do, but that you are capable of so much more then that. Don't ignore your potential, you'll suffer in the long run. Amy. You are the voice of reason. Don't lose sight of that and good luck with Greg and your medical career. Raye." He paused. "Raye....." Another pause. "Its difficult to know what to say except thanks for listening. You really helped me to put some perspective on things that have been bothering me. Lita. Next time you see some Negatrash, give 'em one for me."  
  
"Sure thing," Lita whispered.  
  
"Mina...." The others drew back and Mina stepped forward. "Mina, the light in my soul, the Alpha to my Omega...My other half. I know you must be grieving for me. Please don't. I'm...someplace better now and I'm waiting for you. Don't rush to join me, we have all eternity. Live your life, enjoy each day, and open up your heart to love. You are the Senshi of love, don't let grief erase that."  
  
He blew her a kiss. "I love you Mina."  
  
"I love you too." Mina whispered then buried her face in a pillow and sobbed.  
  
"Well, that's it for me." David paused. "Good Luck guys." The movie ended, leaving the Senshi to stare at their new ally.  
  
Elsewhere on campus...  
  
Shelly hummed to herself as she finished writing a particularly offensive and foul note to the general public on the wall of girls bathroom in the english department. Putting the marker away, she pulled a rubber washer from her pocket and popped it in her mouth, chewing and swallowing as she walked out of the room.  
  
"Mirna has been released."  
  
"Excellent." 


	7. Secrets of The Stars

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from Magic." -Arthur C. Clarke  
  
1000 years ago....  
  
Serenity stood on the balcony overlooking the main Ballroom of the royal castle. In the language of the Humans, her name meant peace. She did not feel very peaceful. A woman dressed in fine robes and carrying a staff shaped as a key stepped up beside her. Her long, dark green hair swishing gently. The look on her face told the Queen all she needed to know.  
  
"It's our own fault really." Serenity said softly.  
  
"Your highness?" The other woman sounded confused. Which was rare for her.  
  
"Beryl. All our military might went into defending ourselves against The Star Kingdom, or Jurai, or the Shrin, or the half dozen other races that want a piece of us." Her hands gripped the railing. "We were so busy mobilizing towards defending ourselves against an outside attack, that we gave no thought to an attack from inside. Now we pay the price."  
  
The Green-haired woman only nodded. The queen turned her attention towards the outside balcony. There she could see her daughter Serena, and her boyfriend. A prince from Earth. He was a good man, and if it wasn't for Beryl, he could have ruled the Moon Kingdom. She walked to a Window, the green-haired woman following. Serenity studied the Earth. For a long moment, nothing was heard except for the sounds of the ball. Finally Serenity turned her head to look at the shadows. Where only a variety of Statues stood, half concealed in the gloom.  
  
"Daffyd." She said quietly. One of the Statues moved.  
  
"Yes." The voice sounded somewhat like a deep, metallic hiss.  
  
"One Portal to Earth remains. You know what to do."  
  
"Yes." Serenity walked back to the railing that overlooked the ballroom.  
  
"We were stupid Setsuna. Now we pay the price."  
  
"There is always hope that we will beat Beryl."  
  
"True. But All the same, Daffyd will destroy all evidence on Earth that we ever existed. Nothing will remain of the Moon Kingdom save some tales of the Peace we had." She took a moment to compose herself. "Unless our spy lied to us, Beryl is almost here. You had better go."  
  
"This plan depends entirely on your daughter." Setsuna said as she stepped back. "If she fails....."  
  
"Help her not too."  
  
"I will try." Energy began to crackle over Setsuna, then she seemed to glow from inside and there was a flare of green light. When it cleared, she was gone. Serenity stood there and waited. Her own death was imminent. She knew that. Peace would come to the Children of the Moon. Somehow.  
  
Somewhere in the bowels of the Pentagon, 1981  
  
"And you're sure that's what they told you?" The astronaut nodded.  
  
"Yes Sir. We were told never to leave Earth Orbit again. The Moon, Mars, it's all off limits."  
  
The Present  
  
It has been a week since the battle at the archeological site and the appearance of the godlike child-woman Mirna. It is now almost fall, the weather has turned chilly and the senshi are bracing for winter....  
  
To say that the appearance of the green haired woman was a surprise to the five girls and one boy who were gathered in the dorm room would be an understatement.  
  
"Pluto!" Serena Tuzinko exclaimed. "Must you do that?" An enigmatic smile crossed the lips of the arrival.  
  
"My Apologies Princess." She said as she bowed. "But a...problem has arisen." She gestured with the key shaped staff in her hand and the TV switched on, showing hordes of pig like brutes and monsters rampaging through Tokyo.  
  
"Porcines." One of the girls muttered. She pushed her raven black hair out of her eyes.  
  
"That is not all." Pluto said, gesturing again. The view on the TV changed to show a closer view of the monsters. They appeared to be crafted from the dreams and nightmares of the Japanese people. Youma, Aragami, and Oni's. The view changed again to show a white haired man, laughing loudly as Tokyo was devastated.  
  
"Malachite." Snarled Lita Kino, a tall amazonian girl. She clenched her fists. "Why can't that son of a bitch bastard stay dead?"  
  
"The view changed again to show Tokyo Tower. Two figures in armor, four women and long haired brown man were holding off the hordes, but it was obvious they were fighting a losing battle.  
  
"Let me guess." The only male in the room, a brown haired young man stood. "Reinforcements are required and those reinforcements are us."  
  
"Precisely. Shall we then?" A Green light flowed over all of them and they vanished.  
  
"Conrad?" Shellie poked her head in the door. "Hey Conrad? Ya here?" Seeing that he wasn't, she went searching. The door was eventually closed by an errant breeze coming through the window.  
  
By the time they had arrived and transformed, The Knight already had a plan.  
  
"I have a plan." He said as they hunched in the shadow of a burnt out van.  
  
"Really?" Mina asked acidly. "What does it involve? Downloading Al Gore's Personality into a youma and letting it bore the others to death?"  
  
"Who's Al Gore?" Sailor Moon asked.  
  
"American Vice President." Mars muttered. "Total bore."  
  
"No." Said the knight. He paused. "That is a thought though." Mina looked sick.  
  
"You said you had a plan." Mercury said. "Mind sharing it with us?"  
  
"We rush 'em." The Knight said simply. "I'll take point and push our way to Tokyo Tower. Then we grab Neptune, Uranus, The Sisters, and Nephrite and go do something fairly permanent about Malachite."  
  
"Funky." Mercury said as an Ice Spear appeared in each hand. "Let's do it."  
  
"Funky?" Mina whispered to Sailor Moon as they stood. "Where did she pick that up?" Sailor Moon could only shrug. Mina sighed and hefted the bloodstained assault rifle she had found. Its owner had been nearby, but being dead, he hadn't needed it any more.  
  
"Well come on you guys." With that, she stood and fired off several well placed bursts at a youma.  
  
They arrived at Tokyo Tower battle worn and minus one.  
  
"Stay down princess!" Uranus snapped, restraining Sailor Moon.  
  
"But Mina is out there. We have to rescue her!"  
  
"We can't" The knight said, slowly scanning the immediate area. "We still have the Negaverse forces to deal with." Sailor Moon nodded and allowed herself to be pulled down.  
  
"So where are they?" Jupiter asked.  
  
"Somewhere out there." Mercury murmured, "But they're staying under cover."  
  
"That's not good." Mars said, peering around the pile of concrete they were using for cover. "They've never used guerrilla tactics before."  
  
"No. They haven't...." Nephrite rubbed his chin. "I wonder...."  
  
"Wonder what?" Uranus asked.  
  
"Nothing." Nephrite waved his hand dismissivly. "Noth--Nothing at all."  
  
"Uh-huh." Uranus didn't sound like she believed him.  
  
Mina fumbled her way through the process of reloading the assault rifle. All those eighties movies her uncle loved so much had made it look so much easier then it actually was.  
  
Deep down, part of her regretted giving up being Sailor Venus-She pushed that thought away. Sailor Venus had died with David, and as long as she drew breath, Mina was determined to see to it that Sailor Venus stayed dead.  
  
Having finished reloading, she darted out of the alleyway and sprinted down to the next available cover, the burnt remains of a city bus and its occupants.  
  
Peering around the wreckage's burnt out hulk, she could see Tokyo Tower rising in the distance.  
  
Almost there, she thought, I'm almost there.  
  
With that, she ran the short distance to the shadowed doorway and from there, back and forth across the street.  
  
"Hello." The knight looked down to see the same childlike being from the dig.  
  
"Hello."  
  
"Are you fighting with more bad people?" She asked, tilting her head slightly.  
  
"Yes. Would you like to help?" She nodded enthusiastically. "Alright." He pointed towards the buildings surrounding Tokyo Tower. "There's a bunch of bad people in those buildings. Make them leave."  
  
"Okay." With that, she vanished.  
  
"How can you do that?" Neptune demanded. "She's just a kid!"  
  
"That 'kid' just teleported out of here. You weren't at the dig site, you didn't see what she did to the youma."  
  
Mina crouched in the shadows of what had once been a bank. Across the square, she could see her friends, crouched behind a pile of concrete.  
  
Almost there.  
  
The minutes ticked by. Jupiter hated waiting. Her breath rasped inside her helmet and she amused herself by making small bolts of electricity jump between her fingers. Mars had her legs crossed, apparently meditating. Uranus and Neptune had their heads together. Nephrite and the four sisters had moved to another pile of concrete and steel girders that was nearby in the hopes that they could divide any attack and take the pressure off the other group. It would all be for naught if Malachite decided on an all out attack, but that wasn't his style according to Nephrite and the Senshi were willing to believe him.  
  
For the moment anyway.  
  
She looked over at Mercury, who was sculpting an ice statue of some guy in a robe with short white hair, a white, neatly trimmed beard and carried a sword.  
  
"Who's that?" Sailor Moon asked, scooting over to Mercury.  
  
"Just a guy from an American Movie." Mercury said absently. "Now lemme concentrate. She wiggled her fingers and the ice sculpture began to move, dueling with some invisible opponent.  
  
"Wow." Sailor Moon breathed. "That is so cool Mercury."  
  
"Yeah." Jupiter said. "How are you doing that?" Mercury shrugged.  
  
"Adding and removing ice to change positions. Its easy if I don't think very hard about it." The ice sculpture suddenly paused, turned its head to look at something, and actually smile. Then the blade of its sword vanished as it collapsed, leaving only the robe. Sailor Moon applauded as Mercury let the sculpture evaporate.  
  
"Could you do that on a larger scale?" Asked the Knight.  
  
"Probably, if I was standing in water so I'd have a source of water to draw on. Why?"  
  
"A thought I just had. If you could create a life-sized statue of-" The knight was cut off by a panicked shout from the buildings as Gorjira burst through the roof of one of the buildings, his tail battering the walls to rubble. He roared and exhaled, his radioactive breath battering the youma who were attempting to deal with this new arrival in their midst.  
  
"Holy Mother of Crap." Jupiter breathed. "What the hell is that?!"  
  
"I believe it is Gorjira, known to us Americans as Godzilla." The Knight deadpanned. "I could be wrong, of course."  
  
"Well thanks for your expert opinion!" Uranus snapped. "I thought I was looking at Rodan!"  
  
"No, Rodan was the giant-" Jupiter cut them both off with a few choice expletives.  
  
"If you two are done." She said with patronizing sarcasm, "Do you think you might possibly help us with the giant lizard over there?" she indicated the rampaging Gorjira as she fixed them with a cold-eyed stare. "That is, if you can find the time."  
  
"Ew." Sailor Moon whispered to Mercury. "I am so glad she's not looking at me like that." Mercury only nodded.  
  
"So am I-huh?" Mercury gasped. Sailor Moon looked up to see Gorjira striding towards them, Mirna riding on his head and angry youma on their heels.  
  
"Shit." Jupiter muttered and readied her Supreme Thunder Attack.  
  
Somewhere in Napa Valley, CA, USA.....  
  
"Dan, wouldja hurry up?"  
  
"I'm trying!" Daniel Westlake hissed, fingers dancing on the palmtop computer's keyboard. "This isn't easy you know."  
  
"Well hurry it up!" Jake Sampson snapped.  
  
The two boys were crouched in the shadow of a bank ATM. Daniel, short, a bit stout, and his face obscured by the tinted goggles and ski mask. Upoun his knee sat a palmtop computer. A cable ran from it to a small credit card shaped device presently inserted into the ATM.  
  
Their intentions were to transfer funds from one account to another account. Both belonging to the same person, one Mister Howard Mister, a Science Teacher with a tendency for overwhelming Anal Retentiveness. While the transfer wouldn't hurt him, it would bother the perfectionist and irritate him to no end.  
  
Thus, the two, their faces covered by ski masks and tinted goggles and their hands covered by leather driving gloves, had snuck out in the middle of the night to engage in a bit of techno crime.  
  
"I'm in."  
  
"Wow." Jake said as he peered over his friend's shoulder. "They really don't pay teachers all that much do they."  
  
"You should see what they paid Miss Haruna." Daniel said absently.  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Nothing." Daniel said, a little too quickly as he stood, quickly entered the commands and then logged out of the ATM.  
  
"Come on!" Jake snapped, stuffing the computer and cable into his backpack and taking off at a dead run.  
  
Daniel followed, running with that particular gait that belonged to those who had an artificial leg. "Supreme Thunder!" Jupiter yelled as the electricity flew from her hands to impact harmlessly against the tough skin of Gorjira's leg. The big lizard roared and turned his full attention towards the green armor clad Sailor Senshi.  
  
"Oh Boy..."  
  
Mina set herself and then leapt from cover and charged for her friends' position.  
  
Almost there...  
  
Gorjira tilted his massive head this way and that, trying to get a look at his attacker. Even though her armor was sealed, Jupiter swore she could smell his breath, hot and rancid, like week old spoiled meat, or was it her imagination?  
  
What wasn't her imagination was the wind from his breath as he breathed out. It pushed against her, trying to knock her over. To stay upright, she was forced to lock the knee joints of her armor in place.  
  
"This isn't good..." Mercury said softly.  
  
"No Shit." Uranus agreed.  
  
Charwar.......  
  
She shows no fear. Seekay said, his voice, as always, cold and metallic. But then, those who settled on Jupiter's Moons were primarily Prince Calthar's personal guard and their families. Seekay, a huge figure wearing enveloping robes beneath a heavy, all-concealing cape and a hood that kept his face in the blackest shadow paused for a moment. Perhaps its time they learn...Yes. Seekay was silent for a moment and Bertie felt the tickle at the back of her head that signified telepathic activity. Tell Malachite to order the Youma to attack.  
  
"Mirna!" Sailor Moon shouted as the Youma surged forward, a harsh cry of battle bursting forth from their throats. "Send those Youma away!"  
  
"Okay." The Youma vanished in mid-attack. Mars exhaled the breath she had been holding without realizing it.  
  
"Well that was anti-climatic." Uranus said acidly. "Now what about big and ugly?" She gestured at the crouching form of Gorjira who seemed a bit baffled at the disappearance of the Youma and kept looking behind him, trying to see where they went. The effect was ludicrous and Jupiter was grateful for her helmet and the cover it offered for the huge grin on her face.  
  
"I'd feel better if I knew where those Youma are now." Mars said. "What if they're in Las Vegas or something?"  
  
"And this is a problem how?" Mercury said as she stood. Mars shot her friend a look. The Senshi of water had changed a lot since her beating by Negaverse thugs. She claimed that it had opened her eyes and made her realize how precious life really was, but it went deeper then that.  
  
There was something fundamentally different about her and for the life of her, Mars couldn't put her finger on it.  
  
"Mirna honey?" Neptune said, looking up at the woman-child on Gorjira's head. "Where did you send the Youma?"  
  
"Away." Mirna pulled a rubber washer from somewhere in her robes and popped it into her mouth and chewed it.  
  
"Would you like to tell us where?" Mirna shook her head.  
  
"Secret." She giggled and ate another rubber washer.  
  
"We can keep secrets. Won't you please tell us?" Mirna shook her head. "No. Me keep Secrets like the Star Lady told me to." She nodded solemnly. "I do what she says." Neptune nodded as stepped back until she stood close to Uranus.  
  
"Give me the rubber washers you had in your pocket." She hissed to her lover. Puzzled, Uranus did as she was bid and Neptune stepped back to Mirna. "Look." She held up one of the rubber washers. "I'll give you this if you come down from there." Mirna's eyes lit up and she slid to the ground holding out her hands.  
  
"Here you go." Neptune handed her one of the larger washers which Mirna gulped down. "Now where did you send the youma?"  
  
"The moon." Mirna said, snatching a rubber washer from Neptune's hand. Jupiter giggled at the thought of the Youma bouncing crazily around in the moon's low gravity.  
  
"I'd like to see that. Youma in low gravity" She snickered.  
  
"Okay." Mirna said as the air around her and the Senshi began to waver and crackle  
  
"Hey look! Its Mina!" Sailor Moon pointed at the figure running across the square even as she, the Senshi, and Mirna wavered and vanished.  
  
Mina couldn't believe her eyes as her friends vanished.  
  
"NOOOOOO!" The cry of denial tore from her throat as she ran faster trying to catch them, even though in her heart she knew it was futile. "NOOOOO!" She howled again as the energy tornado exploded into existence around her and then she too was gone, leaving Nephrite, The Four Sisters and Gorjira to stare at each other.  
  
"So now what?" Avery asked. Nobody answered her.  
  
"It's beautiful." Neptune said softly.  
  
"It doesn't look so bad from up here." Jupiter said softly. There was noises of agreement from the others as they watched the gentle curve of the earth rising above the moon's horizon.  
  
"Okay." Everyone turned to look at Uranus. "We're here, so now now what?"  
  
"I suppose we should try and figure out where on the moon we are, then figure out how to get back." Mars said.  
  
"Well that's easy." Sailor Moon said. "We just ask--" She broke off. "Where is Mirna?" Uranus nudged Neptune.  
  
"Maybe those Aliens you believe warned away the Apollo Astronauts got her." She snickered  
  
"That's not funny." Neptune sounded hurt.  
  
"Aliens?" Jupiter asked.  
  
"Neptune likes to read conspiracy theories on the Web. One of her favorites says that the Apollo eleven Astronauts found aliens while exploring the moon's surface. Then there's the one about how we never made the Moon Landing at all..."  
  
"Well that's all well and good," Jupiter said as they began to spread out, looking for some sign of their location. "But how do we know we're in the Sea of Tranquility?"  
  
"Easy." The Crystal Knight's voice sounded haunted. "We take this flag and follow the path of their explorations." Everyone turned to look at the knight. In his hands he held a twisted metal pole. Dangling from one end was a twisted and torn, wire stiffend flag.  
  
As the others stood in horror and shock, Mercury walked past the Knight.  
  
"That's odd...." She said, crouching and examining the rock. "There's bootprints here." Standing, she paced off twenty steps. "If Neptune's right..." She looked around and then moved to her right. "Guys, come look at this." One by one, they walked to where the Senshi of Water stood.  
  
"What did you find?" Mars asked.  
  
"This." Mercury turned to show them that she was holding a piece of metal in her hands. Though blackend by intense heat, they could still make out the stenciled number 11 and the american flag. "This was blasted fairly recently." She said. "No more then a few hours ago."  
  
"Sorry about that, I had to be sure my new toy worked." The Senshi spun. Standing behind them, surrounded by what appeared to be the same glowing aura that was protecting Sailor Moon was Sailor Star Fighter, Star Healer, and Star Maker. Mina lay still next to Star Healer and Star Maker, apparently unconsious. Jupiter's attention however, was focused on the large black gun in Star Fighter's hands. "Your highness," Star Fighter said with exaggerated politness. "By order of High Regent Elurius of The Star Kingdom of Traconus, I hereby place you and your friends under arrest." He smiled. "Please don't resist, I would rather not have to present dead bodies to the Regent." 


	8. Rebellion And Honor

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from Magic." -Arthur C. Clarke  
  
"What did you find?" Mars asked.  
  
"This." Mercury turned to show them that she was holding a piece of metal in her hands. Though blackened by intense heat, they could still make out the stenciled number 11 and the American flag. "This was blasted fairly recently." She said. "No more then a few hours ago."  
  
"Sorry about that, I had to be sure my new toy worked." The Senshi spun. Standing behind them, surrounded by what appeared to be the same glowing aura that was protecting Sailor Moon was Sailor Star Fighter, Star Healer, and Star Maker. Mina lay still next to Star Healer and Star Maker, apparently unconscious. Jupiter's attention however, was focused on the large black gun in Star Fighter's hands. "Your highness," Star Fighter said with exaggerated politeness. "By order of High Regent Elurius of The Star Kingdom of Traconus, I hereby place you and your friends under arrest." She smiled. "Please don't resist, I would rather not have to present dead bodies to the Regent."  
  
"Explain yourself Seiya." Sailor Moon said coldly.  
  
"What's to explain?" Star Fighter said with a smile. "I'm the one holding the gun." To prove her point, she casually aimed the gun in Mina's general direction and pulled the trigger, causing the blond to bounce and roll across the moon's surface, narrowly missing the sharp rocks scattered around. "That was at the lowest setting and I wasn't even aiming at her." She adjusted something and then aimed at Mina again. "Highest setting. And this time, I won't miss." Sailor Moon bunched her fists and started forward. "Bad Idea Princess." Star Fighter said softly, bringing the gun to bear on Sailor Moon. "This little number fires waves of force at varying levels of power. At a high enough setting, it can shatter bones and turn bodily organs into something vaguely resembling tomato paste." She gave a little shudder of excitement. "Such a......splendid weapon."  
  
"You're sick." Uranus said. Star Fighter shrugged.  
  
"So? I'm still the one with the gun." She motioned with it. "March."  
  
Rose dropped her locket into the box Star Healer held and then stepped back as Star Maker passed some kind of device over the box and Conrad's cane.  
  
"Curious."  
  
"What?" Star Fighter asked. "Are they the right ones?"  
  
"Yes, the serial auras match, but the energy signatures have been altered. There is also the matter of Jupiter's missing pen and the two-"  
  
"But they are the stolen items?" Star Fighter interrupted, oddly impatient. Star Maker nodded. "Good." One more item to add to the list of charges; Tampering with Royal Property." She smirked. "Get in." She indicated the cell nearby.  
  
"We want answers first." Chris said, crossing her arms. Star Fighter jammed the gun under the blonde's chin. "I said I didn't want to present dead bodies to the Regent, didn't say I wouldn't."  
  
"If you weren't holding that gun..."  
  
"But I am. In." For a tense moment, it seemed as though the two would come to blows and then Rose grabbed her lover's arm.  
  
"Chris..." She whispered softly. "We need you alive-I need you alive. Do as Star Fighter says. Please." Chris hesitated and Rose tried one last time. "Do it for me."  
  
"But-"  
  
"I know." Rose began walking towards the cell and after a moment, Chris and the others followed. Rose's thoughts had been whirling. She had been watching Star Maker and Star Healer and their faces showed that there was more going on here then it appeared. Whoever this Regent was that controlled their friends from the stars, knew a lot about the origins of their lockets and powers.  
  
Having long suspected that the pens had been of artificial manufacture, a product of advanced science instead of divine providence or creation, Rose was very interested in discovering who was behind their creation.  
  
An hour later, Lita sat close to the electrical field that kept them confined, watching the faint colors shift in hue and pattern. Behind her, Raye and Amy were trying to keep Serena from having a full blown panic attack. Serena's nature made her extremely trusting and betrayal hit her hard. Rose and Chris sat with their heads together, talking in very quiet voices. Mina lay on the only bench, still unconious. Conrad sat against one of the side walls, knees pulled up to his chest, fingers steepled, eyes focused on a point where the opposite wall met the ceiling. He had also gone completely still, which was completely unnerving.  
  
Not for the first time, Lita wondered if he was dead, except a part of her seemed to know better. She let her mind drift to the steady background hum of the engines and then back to the current predicament. What was going on and why did she keep feeling as though the Senshi were pieces in some cosmic chess game and that their side was getting creamed?  
  
"He makes me nervous." Lt. Commander Yaten Kou said, staring at the monitor screen which displayed their captives. His eyes were focused on the male, Conrad.  
  
"Well then turn it off." Commander Seiya Kou snapped, eyes focused on the controls before him as he guided the ship through Fifthspace.  
  
"I can't. There's no switch, remember?" Muttering an oath, Seiya turned and squeezed off a single shot from the particle laser mounted on the forearm of his combat armor. Lt. Takki Kou looked up from his station, eyebrow raised, as the monitor shattered.  
  
"There. It's off." Seiya said and returned to the bisnuess of flying the ship. Yaten swallowed and looked at Takki, who was staring at Seiya's back.  
  
"I will check on the prisoners." He said after moment and stood.  
  
"I'll go with you." Yaten said, also rising and following his brother off the bridge.  
  
"Lita. Your pen please." Lita jumped. Conrad was getting to his feet.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Your transformation pen Lita. Please Give it to me." Lita handed it over. "Good. Go get Mina." She nodded and handed it over.  
  
"What's going on?" Amy said.  
  
"To use the vernacular, 'we's is bustin outta here.'" Conrad said and then tossed the transformation pen directly into the electric field. With a marked whine, the field began to warp as the pen absorbed the electricity and opened a narrow gap. Turning sideways, he inched his way out and then palmed the controls for the field, switching it off and freeing the rest.  
  
"Not Bad." Chris admitted as she and Rose took Mina's inert form from Lita even as Raye and Amy half helped, half dragged a catatonic Serena from the cell. "But now that we're out, now what?"  
  
"I saw a room with what looked like armor and weapons in it when they herded us in." Rose said. "It might be just a trophy room, but then again..."  
  
"It might be an armory." Raye finished.  
  
The room was indeed an armory. One that seemed to be fully stocked. Unfortunately, there were only three suits of armor. By mutual agreement, Lita, Chris, and Conrad took them. The others selected weapons and body armor.  
  
"Now what?"  
  
"We find the bridge. All the answers we need should be found there." Conrad said. "Lita. Take point. Rose, cover her. The rest of you grab Serena and Mina. Chris, take the rear."  
  
"Who died and put you in charge?" Chris demanded.  
  
"I did." Conrad replied. His face had taken on an unearthly quality and there was something almost inhuman about his voice.  
  
"Let him keep Command." Amy said. "Then we can blame him if this goes to pot." She shouldered the rifle. "Lead on MacDuff."  
  
"I don't care if Seiya is in command." Yaten complained as he and Takki exited the lift. "He's not sane and I'm not about to follow a madman. Even if he is our brother."  
  
"A logical course of action." Takki approved as they rounded the corner and came face to face with their prisoners. Yaten, nerves still wound tight, yelled in surprise and brought his forearm mounted particle laser to bear.  
  
The Senshi responded in a similar fashion with their weapons.  
  
For a moment, it seemed that they would have a shoot out right then and there, except that one of them had no intention of letting that happen  
  
"Barbaric." Takki sighed as he whipped out the stun gun and fired it at Yaten, sending him to the floor. The Senshi immediately aimed their weapons at him. "Oh do put those away." Takki said, dropping the stunner and raising his hands. "I believe the phrase is, 'I surrender'." Naturally, nobody lowered their weapons.  
  
"Why should we believe you?" Raye demanded. Takki sighed.  
  
"Humans." He shook his head sadly. "I offer my aid in retrieving your amulets and reviving your friends. In return, I only ask that you come with me to Dranaxar. There, you will find your answers."  
  
"What's to stop us from shooting you here and now?" Chris demanded.  
  
"Your own curiosity." Takki returned simply. The Senshi looked at each other.  
  
Seiya's thoughts were in a whirl as he guided the ship. They-No, HE had caught the traitors. Yes. Lord Elurius would reward him. He giggled madly. Yes! Glory would be his. Seiya Kou would go down in history as the hero of all Traconus. His tatics would be required reading for all cadets. Lord Elurius would make him one of the Lord-Admirals of the Royal Fleet, right before giving him command of the fleet protecting the Royalty while they healed in their cryogenic sleep, then, he would serve the Royalty so faithfully, that upon awakening, the King would step aside in his favor.  
  
So caught up in his dreams, was he that he didn't feel the rifle butt slam into the side of his head, or feel it when he hit the floor.  
  
As darkness claimed him, he wondered why all the lights had been turned off.  
  
Lita dragged the unconious form of Seiya out of the way, letting Takki take the controls. For a moment, he busied himself with the controls, and Rose took the opportunity to look out the window at Fifthspace.  
  
They were surrounded by multicolored clouds, lighting bolts stabbed down at random times, bouncing harmlessly off the elongated oval of energy that surrounded their tiny craft.  
  
"Where are we?"  
  
"Fifthspace." Takki replied and reached for a set of levers, pushing them forward. Ahead, the multicolored clouds warped and then they were hurtling through the blackness of normal space.  
  
"And now?"  
  
"Approximately five hundred thousand light years from earth." Takki said absently. Raye's mind whirled at the casual way he said as the ship made its way towards the star ahead  
  
"Oh...my...God..." Lita said slowly, her green eyes wide. Behind her, the others let out similar expressions. Ahead of them rapidly filling the window, was a structure of mammoth proportions. It seemed to be composed of millions of towers, with a spiders web of catwalks and other structures suspended between them. At the outer edges, massive spheres hung, sometimes sprouting towers of their own. "What the HELL is that?"  
  
"That is Dranaxar." Takki said, manipulating the controls. "Homeworld of the Star Kingdom of Traconus."  
  
"That's a planet?"  
  
"Supposedly." Takki said guiding the ship into the maze of towers and catwalks. "No one really knows. History says that the cities of old were built over so many times, that the planet was eventually buried. I doubt we'd even notice if the planet exploded." He paused. "There was a fairly violent quake, for lack of a better term, several centuries ago." He shrugged. "Maybe that was it."  
  
Amy peered at the people in the windows they flew past, waving cheerfully. "This is so cool. Real aliens! A real alien civilization!"  
  
"Real Aliens? What do you call everything up to now?" Chris asked acidly.  
  
"Well yeah, but they're not trying to kill us." She looked over at Seiya, who's prone body lay next to Yaten's. "Well, most of them aren't."  
  
"What about Mina, and our equipment?" Raye said.  
  
"Yeah." Lita said. "You promised an explanation."  
  
"So I did." Takki said, guiding the ship to a stop and turning in his chair. "First, let us attend to your friend." With that he rose, and crossed the bridge to a small cabinet, removing a small cylinder and then moving to where Mina lay next to Serena. Kneeling, he pressed the cylinder to her neck. There was a soft hiss and the blond stirred almost immediately.  
  
"Wha? What happened?"  
  
"You were captured in a stasis field." Takki sat back down in the pilot's chair. "Now. For answers."  
  
"Seiya called our amulets 'Royal Property'. Let's start there." Chris' tone was one of suspicion.  
  
"Very well." Takki leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers. "The Star Kingdom is a Monarchy dating back several hundred thousand of your years. Approximately three thousand of those years ago, the Royal family began to fall ill from some strange virus. To save their lives, the Royalty was placed into cryogenic sleep inside a heavily reinforced military base on the third moon, protected by the Royal Navy's most elite Marine troops. As far as the general public knows, the Royalty is healing."  
  
"But that's a lie isn't it?" Conrad said, sinking into the seat Yaten would have occupied if he had been on the bridge instead of sleeping in the brig. "Nor is the virus a naturally occurring organism."  
  
"I still don't see what this has to do with us." Chris grumbled.  
  
"Patience." Takki replied. "All will soon become clear." Steepling his fingers, he resumed his tale. "It was several decades later, that the King's nephew, a brilliant young scientist and tactician named Calthar and his complement of the Royal Guard returned from a deep space exploratory mission. As the only living member of the Royalty who was still healthy, Calthar assumed the throne mere hours after his arrival. His first act as king was to begin an investigation into the illness that felled his Uncle and cousins. He discovered that the virus was indeed of artificial manufacture, and that it was part of a power bid by a high ranking and popular Traconian official who had used the time between the Royalty's falling ill and Calthar's arrival to consolidate his power. He could not declare himself king, the people would revolt. But, he could rule in their name."  
  
"And he did, until Calthar showed up." Conrad said, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his thighs. Takki nodded.  
  
"Indeed. Realizing that it was only a matter of time before the official managed to get the virus to him, Calthar took his guard, his allies, and fled, hoping to find a remote solar system and found a new kingdom. The ship, an ancient derelict that could barely make it into Fifthspace, finally arrived in a small, remote system five thousand light years from Dranaxar, heavily damaged by Star Kingdom pursuers and most of those on board dead or dying. Settling on the moon of the third planet, they began to rebuild, gradually settling on eight of the nine planets or in the case of the gas planets, their moons."  
  
"Sol." Amy's voice was soft. "The system was Sol, wasn't it?"  
  
"Very good. Before fleeing, Calthar stole nine suits of heavy combat armor, nine suits of light/medium combat morphing uniforms and one series five multipurpose 'Star Knight' Transformable Armor." Chris opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, Conrad spoke.  
  
"Our pens, lockets, and the Crystal Knight Armor." Conrad said, responding to her unspoken question. Chris threw him a disgusted glance as Takki continued speaking.  
  
"The colony thrived until its fall, one thousand years ago, presumably, the attack by Beryl and Mettalia. Meanwhile, on Dranaxar, the official continued to consolidate his power, even as mercenaries scoured the space ways looking for any sign of Calthar and his band. Sol however, lies in the galactic equivalent of Antarctica, and is heavily patrolled by the Galaxy Police. Settlement is forbidden, and any traffic in the area is tightly controlled."  
  
"Then how did Calthar get past them and hide signs that he had settled in a Forbidden area?"  
  
"Most of the patrolling is done by heavily armed AI equipped enforcer drones. While it is difficult to do, they can be fooled."  
  
"And Calthar was counting on that to keep himself hidden." Mina said, then frowned. "Wait a sec. If the Royalty is in Cryo, then how did Fireball get loose?"  
  
"There was a malfunction in the monitoring unit. It didn't trigger an alarm, but it released her. Somehow, she managed to steal a small shuttle and make it to your world. Seiya, Yaten and I were dispatched to retrieve her." Conrad's face was unreadable, even though a number of things were rapidly falling into place in his mind.  
  
"Get to the point!" Chris snapped.  
  
"Serena's life is in danger." Conrad said softly.  
  
"Huh?" Serena, who had at some point managed to get a grip, said. "What are you talking about?"  
  
"If I'm to understand Takki correctly, Calthar founded the Moon Kingdom, and almost certainly was its Monarch. If that's the case, then he probably sired children. Your ancestors."  
  
Serena blinked. "Huh?"  
  
"I get it!" Raye exclaimed. "Serena is part of the Traconian Royal Family!" Conrad nodded.  
  
"And undoubtably, is the only one of Royal Blood not in Cryo." He replied. Serena looked at everyone, unable to ignore the twisting of her stomach.  
  
"Not quite." Takki said. "There is one other."  
  
"I don't think I'm going to like this." Mina said softly.  
  
"The other one is the official I spoke of. The one who administered the virus. Elurius, King Symodina's unacknowledged brother."  
  
"Nope. I don't like it."  
  
"So what do we do?" Amy asked.  
  
"If Serena is descended from Royal Blood, then she could take the throne back and use the Imperium Silver Crystal to heal the Royalty." Rose mused  
  
"Yeah! Lita exclaimed. "Then they can kick Elurius's ass back to whatever hole he crawled out of!"  
  
"But he's over four thousand years old." Raye pointed out. "He's had millennia to get in place. There's only eight of us."  
  
"Nine." Takki said.  
  
"Ten." Everyone looked at Yaten, who was sitting up, and looking at them. "I'm in too."  
  
"Then its settled." Conrad said, looking out the window towards the huge tower that was the palace. "We arrest the Lord Regent for High Treason and replace him with Serena."  
  
"Sounds like a plan." Amy said with a grin. "We storm the place, wake up the Royalty, have 'em toss Elurius out an airlock," She rubbed her hands together briskly and flexed her fingers. "and have it all wrapped up in time for lunch."  
  
Strange how plans rarely survive contact with the people who are to carry them out. 


	9. Duel

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from Magic." -Arthur C. Clarke  
  
Serena blinked. "Huh?"  
  
"I get it!" Raye exclaimed. "Serena is part of the Traconian Royal Family!" Conrad nodded.  
  
"And undoubtably, is the only one of Royal Blood not in Cryo," He replied. Serena looked at everyone, unable to ignore the twisting of her stomach.  
  
"Not quite," Takki said. "There is one other."  
  
"I don't think I'm going to like this," Mina said softly.  
  
"The other one is the official I spoke of. The one who administered the virus. Elurius, King Symodina's unacknowledged brother."  
  
"Nope. I don't like it."  
  
"So what do we do?" Amy asked.  
  
"If Serena is descended from Royal Blood, then she could take the throne back and use the Imperium Silver Crystal to heal the Royalty," Rose mused  
  
"Yeah! Lita exclaimed. "Then they can kick Elurius's ass back to whatever hole he crawled out of!"  
  
"But he's four thousand years old," Raye pointed out. "He's had millennia to get in place. There's only eight of us."  
  
"Nine," Takki said.  
  
"Ten," Everyone looked at Yaten, who was sitting up, and looking at them. "I'm in too."  
  
"Then its settled," Conrad said, looking out the window towards the huge tower that was the palace. "We arrest the Lord Regent for High Treason and replace him with Serena."  
  
"Sounds like a plan," Amy said with a grin. "We storm the place, wake up the Royalty, have 'em toss Elurius out an airlock." She rubbed her hands together briskly and flexed her fingers. "and have it all wrapped up in time for lunch."  
  
Strange how plans rarely survive contact with the people who are to carry them out.  
  
"I don't like this. One screw up and we're all gonna die."  
  
"Since when did you become a pessimist?"  
  
"Since we embarked on this loony mission." Uranus, Mercury, and Jupiter were crouched in the shadows of a motor pool. Just a few yards away, a fleet of limos waited, shined and polished. Mercury was busy with the security system while Jupiter and Uranus stood watch.  
  
"What's taking so long?" Uranus asked after a few more minutes ticked by.  
  
"You wanna do this?" Mercury asked.  
  
"No. That's why we brought you," Uranus replied.  
  
"Then shaddup."  
  
"How long has she been like that?" Uranus asked, leaning closer to Jupiter and speaking in a whisper. The Outer Senshi didn't really have much contact with the Inner Senshi and it sometimes caused personality conflicts when a new facet of someone's personality was revealed.  
  
"Since we got sent to Crystal Tokyo. But its only really become apparent after David got killed." Jupiter whispered back. "Truth be told, I'm worried that those injuries have affected her more then we thought."  
  
The plan, on paper, was simple; since the only way to the Moonbase was a portal, and a review of the defenses and security measures had proven a frontal assault was suicide, it had been decided to try subterfuge instead. Serena would disguise herself, and two or three Senshi as a member of the Nobility and her attendants and aides. The others would pretend to be her bodyguards. Then they would bluff their way in and try to get close to the transport station. But in order to create an effective disguise, they needed a limo.  
  
Since Chris and Conrad had taken an instant dislike to each other, and Chris was needed to drive the limo, Mercury was sent to handle the technical aspects of stealing it, as well as to preclude the possibility of an argument.  
  
"Damn! Shit! Fuck! Stupid Alien Hardware!" Jupiter was jolted out of her reverie by Mercury's swearing. The Senshi of Thunder felt her cheeks redden as Mercury continued to swear, using oaths Jupiter hadn't heard since her childhood as she listed the probable ancestry of whoever had designed the security system and exactly why they possessed that particular person or thing or animal in said ancestry.  
  
"Uh Mercury?" Mina's voice said over the com.  
  
"...And that's why you look like a-huh?"  
  
"Something wrong?"  
  
"Hell yeah. This stupid excuse for a computer is refusing me access! Me!" With that, Mercury launched full bore into another round of swearing, this time, directed at the security system. Finally, running out of oaths, or perhaps needing to catch her breath. Mercury cocked her fist and slammed it against the interface terminal. There was a noise like an electronic burp and the gate slid open. The three Senshi looked at each other and then ran inside.  
  
"Which one?"  
  
"That one!" Jupiter shouted, pointing at a sleek black number that was off by itself.  
  
"Yeeha!" Mercury shouted, vaulting over the hood of a car that was in the way and going to work on the lock.  
  
By the time the other two had arrived, Mercury had the passenger side open.  
  
"Ladies," She said, bowing.  
  
"Thank you," Uranus said, diving through the open door, followed closely by Jupiter.  
  
"Keys, keys, this thing has gotta have some kind of keys," Uranus muttered as she looked around the compartment.  
  
"How about pressing that button marked power?" Mercury said acidly as she climbed in.  
  
"Oh." Uranus reached over and pressed the button, causing a deep throated hum to fill the interior of the vehicle. Under her helmet, a big grin spread across her face.  
  
"Oh yeah."  
  
By the time the trio had returned with the limo, Mina and Mars were making the final adjustments to Serena's dress.  
  
"I still think we should use the Luna pen," Serena grumbled as Mina snipped off some stray threads.  
  
"The 'Luna Pen', as you call it, has its limits," Takki said. "It can only disguise the user as something the user is familiar with."  
  
"And you're not familiar with Traconian fashion." Mars put in as she and Mina stood back to admire their handiwork.  
  
"Besides," Conrad put in, "Takki said that the Palace security systems can pick up the energy the pen uses."  
  
"Not bad." Yaten said, standing up and walking around Serena. "It should work." He looked at his brother. "Where did you get the pattern?"  
  
"I have some friends in the fashion industry." Was the reply. Yaten shook his head.  
  
"Where don't you have friends?"  
  
"Where you do," Takki replied.  
  
Elurius, High Regent of the Star Kingdom of Traconus, was not a very physically imposing man. He was tall, slim in an athletic sort of way. His face seemed almost disjointed, as though he had been put a together wrong. But his eyes were his most striking feature. They were bright, with the burning zeal that marks a fanatic.  
  
At the moment, those eyes were focused on the court functionary who stood before him.  
  
"What?" He asked quietly. The functionary swallowed.  
  
"We've detected the presence of intruders and one of them . . ." The functionary took a deep breath. "One of them possesses the genes of the Royal Bloodline."  
  
"So Calthar has returned."  
  
"No."  
  
"No?"  
  
"Its a young female Lord Elurius, and the gene is, as far as we can tell without a blood sample, is mixed with Alien DNA."  
  
"How intriguing. Find her and bring her to me, alive."  
  
"Yes Lord Elurius!" The functionary shouted and bolted.  
  
They marched through the Grand Hallway. Yaten and Takki, in the green and black of the Tracionian Royal Gaurd in front with Jupiter between them, just in case. The rest of the Senshi marched in two lines of three apiece. Between them, Serena in her gown followed by Mina, who was dressed as an aide. The Crystal Knight brought up the rear.  
  
All in all, they made an impressive sight as they moved. Various dignitaries, servants, and other such ilk that infest places of goverment throught the civilized galaxy moved aside as they drew near, whispering speculation as to who this mystery woman was that her bodygaurds were not only two members of the royal gaurd, but six members of The Royal Army who were in full armor and one of the Elite Star Knights.  
  
When they reached the lift tube, they closed ranks, allowing for a quick briefing by Takki.  
  
"When we reach the top, we exit and turn right. Straight ahead and to the right is another lift tube. It will be gaurded and the gaurds will ask for Identification, which Mina is carrying. If all goes well, we'll be passed through into the palace proper. If they question the ID, Mina will attempt to bluff our way past, if that fails, we shall resort to violence."  
  
"Right," The Senshi said, entering the lift tube. The ride was short and as one, they exited and turned right. To their left was a huge picture window that ran floor to ceiling along the length of the wall, offering a veiw of the towers with their rooftop parks, gardens and catwalks between them that made up the huge city that was Draxanar.  
  
"Nice Veiw," Mercury said blandly as they neared the gaurd station.  
  
"ID please," The gaurd said. Mina stepped forward with the bundle of papers that was the ID Takki and Conrad had hastily forged not two hours ago.  
  
"Lady Summaro, aide, and bodygaurds."  
  
"Bisnuess?"  
  
"Personal," Mina responded, giving her words just the right mixture of authority and boredom. The gaurd hmphed and began inputing the information into the computer.  
  
Seconds later, they heard a scream. Turning to find the source, they saw the other gaurd, his arm pinned to the wall by an ice shard, his twitching fingers next to a red button.  
  
Yaten reached over the console and grabbed the other gaurd.  
  
"What's the big idea?" He demanded.  
  
"Lord Elurius saw right through your disguises." The gaurd sneered. "You're all under arrest."  
  
"Oh joy," Mercury said acidly as she turned and began erecting a floor to ceiling ice wall.  
  
"If we are exposed, there is little point in hiding," Takki said, taking out his own transformation wand as Yaten did the same. "Undoubtably, all lifts are booby trapped. As the saying goes, 'the jig is up'."  
  
"Maybe not," Mercury was staring out the window at the towering shadow of the palace. "I don't about the rest of you, but I'm not about to commit sucide." Quickly, she covered the lift door in ice before doing the same to the window.  
  
"What's the plan Mercury?"  
  
"Go skating. ICE SPEAR!" The window shattered, ushering in cold air.  
  
"Have you gone mad?" Jupiter shouted.  
  
"Look at it this way," Mercury said, backing up across the hallway. "We have the powers to survive going out this window and taking our chances out there. If this Elurius character's troops get their hands on us, we have no chance. Especially when you consider our armor is eight thousand years old by Traconian standards." With that, she sprinted the short distance across the hallway, springing out the hole and falling down out of sight.  
  
"I must be insane," Mina muttered as she jumped onto the knight's back. "Let's go." 


End file.
